


Field Trip

by MayRaven1798



Series: Alternative Lal [3]
Category: Star Trek: The Next Generation
Genre: Androids, Dysfunctional Family, Enemies to Friends, Enemies to Lovers, Episode: s03e15 Yesterday's Enterprise, F/M, Kidnapping, Manipulation, Non-Consensual Drug Use, Torture
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-03
Updated: 2020-11-23
Packaged: 2021-03-08 19:55:14
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 14
Words: 31,466
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27362332
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MayRaven1798/pseuds/MayRaven1798
Summary: Although this story follows sometime after “Life of a Teenaged Android”, this one has a much darker tone. This is primarily a story about Wesley and Lal being kidnapped by Lore, but the truth is it became about Lore too. He is one crazy complex cookie and I can’t stop including him in my stories.
Relationships: Wesley Crusher/Lal
Series: Alternative Lal [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1982974
Comments: 6
Kudos: 10





	1. Something Wrong

**Author's Note:**

> Warnings for violence, mild torture, poisoning, kidnapping, tantrums, trauma, sexual references, mentions of rape and any other terrible thing that Lore might do. If I missed something important please let me know.
> 
> As always I do not own anything from the Star Trek TNG franchise, which is a shame because it takes up so much space in my brain.

Something was wrong. 

Although widely believed to be a goodie-two-shoes, Wesley was not unknown to partake in the occasional alcoholic drink. His mother would often take him along to formal dinners, or officers functions as a child. By the time he was fourteen he had become a master at sneaking a sip or a glass of his own, but he knew his limits more or less. This time was different. This felt different. There was definitely something wrong.

A few of his friends laughed at his misfortune as he covered his mouth and gagged. He could hear Shelley’s distinct shrill bark over the loud chattering voices. It wasn’t appreciated. In fact, none of his friends moved to follow him to see if he was alright. As he ran down the beach and away from the bonfire he had two thoughts; one—he was never drinking again; and two—he needed better friends.

He felt a little better after emptying his stomach. Then another wave sickness hit and he almost lost his balance. A firm grip caught him by the shoulder and kept him from toppling over.

“Wesley, what has happened? Should I get medical assistance?” 

It was Lal. Of course she had seen him take off from the gathering. She was the one person he could count on.

“I think I’m okay now. I just might sit for a minute,” he told her, his voice cracking.

He felt awful. Not just physically, but also because it was clear that he was ruining their fun. It seemed as though the others were finally warming up to her. Then again, maybe they were talking to her for a reason. He didn’t like to think the worst of the teenagers that he called his friends, but he knew it was possible that one of them decided to play a prank on him. If this was the case it would have been imperative to wait until Lal was distracted to spike his drink.

The two sat down on the sand. Lal was becoming increasingly concerned for his wellbeing. Wesley wasn’t just pale, he was green. Even in the dim light of the two moons she could see that he was worse off than he probably thought he was.

“I will go and get assistance,” she told him assertively. Before he could find the energy to protest, she kissed his cheek and stood up.

Wesley made the mistake of abruptly turning his head to watch her walk away. The movement causing more nausea. He threw himself forward on his hands and knees and retched.

“That’s unpleasant,” quipped a familiar voice from somewhere beside him. 

The boy looked up, slowly this time, at the source and groaned. It was Data, his golden features reflective even in the almost darkness. Wesley couldn’t recall the android volunteering to chaperone their field trip, though it wasn’t a complete surprise to see him. He had been reluctant to let Lal go with them in the first place. It was only natural that he would want to check in on them and make sure that they weren’t up to any shenanigans.

“Believe me, it really is,” Wesley lamented as he tried to steady himself.

“Do you think you might be dying?” the android asked as he crouched down next to him.

It sounded like a valid question, but the bemused expression that danced across his face seemed uncalled for. Especially since Wesley was under the impression that Data approved of his relationship with his daughter.

“Data, why do you look so happy to see me so unwell?” asked Wesley, his throat raw and his head pounding.

The synthetic man didn’t answer him. He appeared to be thinking internally, his eyes darting back and forth. “Hmm, I suppose this isn’t that bad. Do you think you can stand?”

Wesley was confused. He couldn’t quite tell if Data was being kind, or something more sinister. He was finding it difficult to focus, but he could have sworn Data just said ‘isn’t’ instead of ‘is not’. He couldn’t be sure. His head was swimming and he was sweating profusely. If he didn’t know any better he would almost think that he had been poisoned. 

“No, I don’t think so,” the boy finally managed to say.

The next thing Wesley knew he was being lifted off of the sand and dragged by one arm. However, he wasn’t being brought back to safety and civilization, but further towards the water. Maybe Data thought the cool ocean might sober him up.

The android walked until he was knee deep before he dropped the boy with a loud splash. Wesley was kneeling, unable to stand, as the gentle waves hit him in the chest. He looked up again to tell Data that he didn’t think the water was helping, only he didn’t have a chance to speak. He was stunned into silence when a golden hand came down and roughly grabbed him by the hair.

“Don’t worry little man. You’ll feel better soon enough,” Data whispered in his ear.

That was when Wesley knew. This wasn’t Data. The sickeningly sweet tones were unmissable. 

“What are you doing?” 

Both of them turned in surprise and watched as Lal waded into the water, the skirt of her crimson party dress floating around her legs.

“I was going to get assistance for Wesley when I saw you approach him,” she continued. “Why have you brought him into the water, Father?”

“What did you just call me?” asked Lore with an almost bewildered air.

“Lal, run!” cried Wesley.

The dark haired girl made a face at her boyfriend. She wasn’t sure what sort of game they were playing, but it wasn’t one she was familiar with. Then, quite suddenly, the golden android forced the boy’s head under the water, his face a mask of hatred.

“Father, no!” yelled Lal. “I love him!”

Lore froze momentarily. He was sure this time; she said ‘father’. He quickly pulled Wesley’s head back out of the water. The boy coughed and sputtered as he gasped for air.

“Him? You love him?” Lore questioned as he violently yanked back on the boy’s hair again. Then he dropped his hold and Wesley splashed face first into the inky water and out of sight. 

“Be a good girl and come here to your father,” Lore instructed with a sickening smirk.

As he reached for her, Lal felt something she hadn’t felt since she was told she would be taken from the Enterprise—from Data—terror.

“I do not believe that you are my father,” she said as she started to back away from him.

“Clever girl,” Lore snarked as he jumped at her. 

He caught her arm and managed to cover her mouth before she could scream. Even if she had been able to cry out, they were so far away from the noisy group that they probably wouldn’t have heard her.

Lore noted how strong she was as she fought against him. His mind was buzzing with possibility. Could it be that she was not just some adopted brat? Did his brother actually make another android? And what did the boy call her—Lal? Leave it to emotional incapable Data to name his child ‘beloved’.

The girl muttered something into his hand. Lore tentatively loosened his hold so that she could say it again and be understood.

“Save Wesley and I will do anything you ask of me,” she bargained. By now she had concluded that her boyfriend was helpless and she was afraid that he would drown.

Lore considered her request for several seconds before letting her go. He fished around until he located the boy and easily lifted him out of the water. He wasn’t breathing this time.

“Looks like I’m too late. Oh well,” Lore told her cruelly.

As he was about to drop the boy back into the water, Lal spoke again. “Take him to the beach. I have been programmed with CPR.”

Lore squinted at her in disbelief; her statement further evidence that she was no normal girl. He wanted the boy dead and now he was. If it wasn’t for the possibility that he could use this pathetic human as leverage he would have ended things there.

Reluctantly, Lore carried the boy back to the sand. He also knew CPR thanks to his sap of a creator, but he stood back and let this strange girl have a go.

A few moments later Wesley was coughing up water and groaning in a disoriented state. Lore couldn’t help but smile. It seemed causing the boy to suffer over and over again was more fun than only killing him only once. 

Now they seemed to have finally gotten the attention of the party-goers. Lore could see several people heading in their direction. He could snatch the girl and beam up to his waiting ship, or he could have his cake and eat it too and take the boy as well. 

He opened a panel on his wrist and made a few adjustments to his site to site transporter settings. Then he bent down and threw the boy over his shoulder like a sack of very soggy potatoes. 

“What are you doing?” inquired Lal fearfully. 

Lore picked up on the quiver in her voice. It was like music to his ears. An android girl made by this brother with emotional capability. What a lucky find. Finding Wesley was a happy accident, but finding this girl—on her own without Data around to protect her—was like a gift from the heavens.

“We’re going on a field trip,” he mused. “Don’t worry, ‘Beloved’, if you’re a good little girl I’ll take care of your friend.”

Lal nodded numbly and didn’t pull away this time when he reached for her hand. Seconds later the beach and ocean disappeared from view as they transported away.

.....

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> What do you think? I had so much fun. Such a shame that Lore and Lal never met. Thought a good old surprise encounter would be interesting. Also...I love Wesley, but tormenting him is delightful for some reason. Please send help.


	2. Not Your Uncle

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Things get worse before they can get better.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warnings for violence, mild torture, poisoning, kidnapping, tantrums, trauma, sexual references, mentions of rape and any other terrible thing that Lore might do. If I missed something important please let me know.

It was a beautiful afternoon on Caprica V. The marketplace was buzzing and Lal was enjoying the company of her new friends. Shelley held up a colourful scarf and Annie shook her head, giving it a thumbs down. Then Annie, a tall slender blond, picked up a large floppy hat and placed it on Lal’s head. All three girls giggled with delight at how outrageous it looked on the android.

Shelley, the shorter girl with chestnut waves, snatched the hat away and placed it back on the merchant stall. Then she spotted a lovely dress in deep red. 

“What do you think?” Shelley asked eagerly as she held it on the hanger and waved it in front of Lal.

“It is a very modest silhouette in an appealing hue,” Lal replied plainly.

“I think Wes will love it on you,” added Annie as she took the dress from the brunette and held up against Lal’s front. A couple of months ago Annie and Lal were rivals. Now, much to everyone’s surprise, they were actually good friends.

“Do you think so? Is it appropriate to wear on a beach?” asked Lal. She knew that Wesley liked her however she looked, but since this appeared to be a part of their female bonding she was open to the idea.

“Ordinarily I would say it wasn’t, but it’s not like we’re going to be swimming,” Annie said with a mischievous smile.

“Right, ‘cause even if we do it’ll be skinny dipping,” noted Shelley as though finishing her friend’s thought.

“Skinny...oh.” Lal was getting much better at catching onto their cultural references. Although she had no real qualms about being naked in front of others, her modesty program informed her that it was quite taboo for both genders to swim naked with one another. It was also probably not approved of by the their parents either.

“You should get the dress, Lal,” nudged Shelley. “Every girl should have a dress that makes her feel special.”

~~~~~

Lal looked down at her damaged dress, the deep crimson muddied by salt water and wet sand. The memory of her delightful afternoon with her friends seemed so distant now. Wesley had loved the dress, as predicted, which did make her feel special at the time. However, they never got a chance to go skinny dipping. Though both she and Wesley ended up in the water.

Lore deposited his victim on the floor of his Runabout. All three of them were soaking wet, but Wesley was unarguably the wettest. Sadly, the salt water had not completely cleaned away all of the sick from the boy’s clothes. As soon as he was able, Lore would be sure to redress him.

The idea had been to poison Wesley; make it look like a casual accident of alcohol poisoning at the party. When he had spotted the boy in the marketplace he decided right then and there that he wanted to kill the little nuisance. The key was to do it without drawing attention to himself, but he must have miscalculated the dose of the toxin. It wasn’t like him to make such an obvious error. Lore decided to go with it. Take the boy and the new, very intriguing, little android mouse with him.

Lal got down on the floor with Wesley who was now unconscious. She lovingly cradled his head in her lap, much to Lore’s chagrin. She could tell that his breathing was raspy from inhaling the ocean water and he was still suffering from whatever had made him ill in the first place.

Lore was all business. He quickly left them and sat up front at the navigation console. He wanted to be sure they were leaving orbit before he turned back around to check on the girl.

“Help him,” she begged from the floor. She was trying to stay strong for the both of them, but if her Wesley died she feared that she would never see her father or her home again.

With an exasperated sigh Lore got up from his seat and opened a panel in the wall. He dropped a first-aid kit on the floor beside her. It was only when he knelt down to rummage through the open kit that he realized she was crying.

“Hey, Lal, don’t cry. It’ll be alright,” Lore said softly as though genuinely trying to comfort her. He wasn’t sure where that had come from. It wasn’t like him to be kind on purpose.

The girl nodded and tried to stop crying. She knew it wouldn’t help either of them if she lost control of her emotions. In her mind she quietly ran through one of the exercises that Troi had given her to cope with stressful and potentially overwhelming situations. 

Lore could hear the intentional steady intake and slow exhale of air as Lal tried to calm herself. He shook his head at her very human weakness. If the girl was prone to panic attacks he would have to try and break her of that too. 

As Lal continued to go through her exercise, Lore pulled out a hypospray. He quickly loaded it and applied it to the boy’s neck. It hissed as an anti-toxin was released into Wesley’s bloodstream.

Wesley didn’t exactly recover right away, but he did look less distressed and seemed to fall into a proper sleep. Lore checked on navigation again before pulling out a blanket and throwing at Lal.

“It will have to do for now,” he said flatly. “I don’t have anything else on board. It’s not like I was expecting company. Just keep him warm and quiet until we get back to my base.”

Lal nodded and covered Wesley with the heavy blanket. Then she looked up at the other android. “You are Lore,” she said quietly. It wasn’t a question but more of an admission that she knew who he was.

He glared at her for a moment before speaking. “Let me guess, dear old Data told you what a bad seed I am? Well he’s right. So do as I say and I might keep my word and not kill your little friend.”

“I suppose if you are my father’s brother that would make you my uncle,” she said offhandedly.

“No kid. I’m not your uncle. You and I are not human; we’re better than that,” he grumbled in response.

“Why do you think you are better, Uncle? What is better than the ultimate goal of our design; to become human?” she countered.

Lore rolled his eyes and scoffed. “Wow, did Data ever pull one over on you.” Then he felt the need to correct her again. “Look, don’t call me ‘uncle’. And I’ll show what I mean by ‘better’ soon enough, Beloved.”

Lal cocked her head to the side and frowned. “I do not understand. You claim to have no desire to be my uncle, my family, but that is the second time you have called me ‘beloved’.”

“Because it’s your name. Lal means ‘beloved’ in Hindi,” he explained.

“Oh,” she said as she considered his words. “You are being subversive by using a variation on my name without the respect of actually calling me by my name. You certainly do not feel any affection for me and therefore there is a sort of irony to calling me beloved.”

“Are you always this talkative and so literal? It’s kind of annoying,” Lore snarked as he turned back to face the front of the shuttle.

Lal was about to reply, but decided not to in case he was serious about her annoying him. So she tucked the blanket in around Wesley’s sleeping form and lay down next to him. She hoped that her body heat would help keep him comfortable. The last thing she needed was for him to get hypothermia.

It was quite some time later when Wesley regained consciousness. He woke with a start when the shuttle touched down wherever they were now. His body seized in a fit of violent coughing and it was getting harder and harder for him to breathe. Lal quickly began to panic. She was concerned that it was more than just the salt water that had irritated his lungs. She tried to help him sit up to see if it would make any difference. It didn’t.

“Damn it, now what?” complained Lore as he came back to investigate. 

“Wesley cannot stop coughing. Perhaps there was something in the water that has settled in his lungs,” Lal told him.

“See...this is why you should have let him die,” Lore said cruelty, blaming her for Wesley’s suffering no less. “Now we have to listen to that.”

Lal closed her eyes against Lore’s harsh words. She wasn’t ready to accept that he was unwilling to help the boy she loved. She rubbed Wesley’s back and tried to coax him to take slower, longer breaths, but nothing seemed to help. He was gasping and starting to cough up blood.

“Please, do something,” she begged.

“I can break his neck and end his torment,” he suggested casually with a shrug of his shoulders.

“Why are you so heartless!? How can you stand by and watch a living person suffer and die!?” she shouted. She could feel the hysteria start to creep up on her. If she had to sit there and helplessly watch Wesley die she wouldn’t be far behind him.

“Here’s a little secret that maybe your daddy didn’t tell you, little girl,” Lore said harshly as he bent down so that they were practically nose to nose. “Humans are dying from the moment they’re born. That’s how organic life works.”

Before Lal could respond to Lore’s cruelty, Wesley stilled and went deathly quiet. They both turned their attention on him and waited for any sign to indicate if he was alive, or dead. After a moment they could hear a wheeze escape his lungs. Lore was sure that was the end of it until the boy wheezed again.

“Oh, for fuck’s sake,” Lore grumbled. He wrenched Wesley away from Lal and lay him on his back on the floor.

Lal was sure that her captor was seconds away from euthanizing her chosen mate. Fear bubbled up from within her and threatened to consume her whole.

“No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no...” 

She ranted the same word over. Each time she said it she was getting louder and more intense. Lore was beginning to get a sense that if he didn’t act quickly he was going to have two corpses bury. 

So, he did his best to ignore her. He took a deep intake of air, plugged the boy’s nose and then breathed evenly, but with a good amount force, into his mouth. Wesley turned slightly and coughed violently again. This time a good amount of mucus and fluid accompanied the blood. Lore picked up a corner of the blanket that had been covering him and wiped the remaining mess off of Wesley’s mouth.

Then, still ignoring the hysterical girl behind him, Lore went through his first-aid again and found an oxygen mask, activated it and placed it over Wesley’s face. As a final act of kindness he loaded another hypospray and injected the boy with its contents. 

Once he was satisfied that the girl’s ‘pet’ was out of immediate danger, he approached Lal and wrapped his arms around her. “It’s okay. Your friend is going to be okay. Breathe...just breathe, Lal.” 

He could tell that she was lost in the feedback of her hysteria, so he squeezed her tightly to him. After a moment or two she stopped resisting him and collapsed into sobs.

Lal found herself holding onto her uncle with a kind of desperation. He was like a life preserver in her endless, all consuming emotional ocean. She vaguely wondered if this was what Wesley had felt like when he was drowning. It was terrible and very frightening.

“Hush now...he’s safe. You’re safe,” Lore continued soothingly. Of course it was a blatant lie. She was far from safe. It wasn’t as though he was going to turn his ship around and deliver her back into her father’s waiting arms. He wanted to keep her, but how could he if she was dysfunctional? So he had to create the illusion of safety.

It took a long while for her to quiet down. Lore wasn’t sure if she would survive another episode of the same intensity. So he began weighing his options. He could lie and tell her he would take the boy home, but kill him instead. He could do the right thing and actually take him home, but that could lead to other complications. Or he could call in a couple of favours and have the boy cared for properly and hope for the best.

When Lal finally calmed enough, she looked him in the eyes. Lore knew in an instant what a horrible mistake he had made kidnapping this girl. She was going to destroy him.

“Are you feeling better now?” he asked, hoping that she wouldn’t catch the real concern in his voice.

“Yes, Unc—...Yes, Lore.”

He caught her correction and decided that maybe she was feeling the same inner conflict that he was. He had already established that they were not family, but damn it all if somewhere deep inside he knew that they were.

“I don’t mind so much after all. You can call me ‘uncle’ if you want to,” he told her with something close to affection.

Lal wasn’t sure if he was being sincere, or humouring her to keep her calm. Either way, it did make her feel better. She gave him a weak smile and tried it out.

“Thank you, Uncle. Thank you for helping Wesley,” she said with gratitude.

No doubt about it. Lore was doomed.

.....

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Poor Lore, what did he get himself into?


	3. The House Call

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lal tries to remain calm when a doctor comes to help Wesley.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warnings for violence, mild torture, poisoning, kidnapping, tantrums, trauma, sexual references, mentions of rape and any other terrible thing that Lore might do. If I missed something important please let me know.

Lore made sure that Lal understood the gravity of their situation. “When the doctor gets here you keep quiet. Only speak if absolutely necessary and agree with everything I say. Got it?”

The girl nodded as she held Wesley’s hand. Lore loathed her desperate need to touch the boy he hated, but knew that she needed her security blanket. If holding his hand kept Lal from panicking he had no choice but to allow it. 

Wesley was lying unconscious on a mattress against one wall. It was the best Lore could manage on short notice. It wasn’t as though he had a bed handy. Together he and Lal had carried Wesley into the structure that the android called home. They even changed Wesley’s clothes. 

It wasn’t exactly like Lore enjoyed the chore of wrangling the sickly human into one of his lesser worn outfits. However, it would have been one more lie to tell if he had to explain why the boy was wearing damp, bile spattered clothes that were covered with salt residue. Especially since this planetoid had no ocean.

As much as Lal wanted to escape, she also understood that if she spoke up or tried anything to communicate being held against her will that Lore would be forced to do something about it. That meant that not only would Wesley’s life be in danger, but the life of this innocent stranger who had only come to help.

Lal could hear Lore speaking to a woman in the entryway. She made herself ready for the possible onslaught of questions that might be asked. As the woman came into the room Lal could read the annoyance on her face. At least that what Lal believed the physician was expressing; the girl wasn’t very familiar with Romulan facial structures.

“You said he deteriorated quickly?” the doctor asked Lore over her shoulder. She didn’t wait for his answer, but swiftly knelt down next to her patient and opened her medical bag. 

“Yeah, like I said. They turned up on my doorstep after getting lost hiking in the hills and a few hours later the boy was coughing and gasping for breath. I just hope he isn’t contagious,” explained Lore.

The woman shot him a snide look. “It’s so out of character for you to have actual concern for anyone, Cain. You expect me to believe that you’re worried about exposing me to some nasty virus?”

Lal could tell that was not a first meeting. The doctor seemed to know Lore...or at least know him as an alias.

“What can I say? I have a soft spot for young lovers,” Lore told her. It was almost convincing.

“And how are you feeling?” the doctor asked Lal as she began to scan Wesley with her medical device. “Any similar symptoms?”

Lal hesitated. She was unclear if this was one of those instances where it was safe to speak or not.

“Go on, Alice, tell her,” prompted Lore. The last thing he needed was for his nosy neighbour to scan Lal and discover that she was far from human.

‘Alice’ looked confused for a moment before she realized that Lore was giving her a fake name as well. “Yes...I mean no,” Lal said as she tried to focus. “I am fine. I have not felt unwell.”

“Alice, my name is Doctor Pel,” said the woman as though suddenly remembering her bedside manner. “Have you contacted either of your parents?”

“No...I have not,” Lal replied and quickly looked over at Lore for guidance. She was bad at lying and if this woman was going to keep asking personal questions she was going to have a problem. 

“We are not supposed to be out on our own and they would not approve,” Lal added as she fidgeted with the waistband of her borrowed jumper as if to distract herself from the lies. She dreaded to think who it used to belong to, or why Lore had it in his possession.

The woman gave her a knowing look as if understanding their predicament. “Your boyfriend seems to have very bad pneumonia. Strangely his immune system seems to have been damaged recently, making it almost impossible for his body to keep up,” explained Pel. 

Lal knew exactly what she was talking about. If Lore hadn’t poisoned Wesley before trying to drown him he might have been doing better by now.

“Don’t worry. I’ll have him all better in no time,” Pel reassured her. “I never thought I’d say this, but it was a good thing that you found Cain when you did. A couple hours more and he would be dead.”

“Geez, Pel, you make me sound like a monster,” complained Lore.

The doctor ignored him. She was too busy placing a device on Wesley’s chest. Then she placed another on his forehead. “What’s his name?” 

The question was simple enough. Lal decided to continue with the fake names in case using his real name was a mistake. “It is Richie,” she said softly.

Lore frowned but looked impressed that she had improvised on her own.

“And how long have you known him?” prodded Pel.

“Almost my whole life,” she said reflexively. It was true and also made it believable that she was at least as old as her boyfriend.

“Well, Richie is going to need your help. Even once he’s not sick he’ll be weak for a few days. Ideally I would take him to the clinic, but it’s quite a journey and he’s too unwell to make it. If he isn’t improving like he should in a few days, I might want to take him then. That sound okay to you, Cain?”

“Sure...whatever. I guess I can put up with a couple of house guests for a few days,” Lore muttered.

“I hope you have a working food replicator,” said Pel sternly as she injected the boy with a medication. “Unlike you, he’ll need nourishment and lots of fluids.”

Lore frowned again and sighed. “Yeah, yeah. It just needs a little tweaking,” he told her.

“Cain? Seriously. This is not a joke. Maybe I should take them with me,” Pel said as she checked Wesley’s vitals again.

Lal was ready to say that this was an excellent idea, but held back as she read the warning in her uncle’s eyes.

“No, no. I just need to change the power cell and recalibrate it. It’ll take a couple of minutes. Besides, why the hell would I call you here to heal the boy if I was just planning to let him starve to death after you left?” He did his best to sound hurt and offended by her accusations.

Pel looked unconvinced, but didn’t continue to argue with him. She turned her attention back to Lal. “Are you alright staying here?”

“Yes,” the girl replied without missing a beat. She could feel her sympathetic system protocols begin to initiate. She had to work quickly to counteract them before she starting crying again.

“He really should be fine,” said Pel as though sensing her distress. “And don’t worry about Cain. He may be an android, but he’s mostly harmless.”

Lal wanted so badly to tell the doctor about how dangerous Lore really was, but knew it would only make things worse and not better. So once again she held her tongue and nodded.

“You are very compassionate for a Romulan,” Lal found herself saying.

Pel smiled at her words. “Thank you, I guess.”

A few hours later the doctor removed the medical devices from her patient. As she was taking another reading of his vitals, Wesley opened his eyes and stared up at her.

“Welcome back, Richie,” said Pel with a grin. “Your little girlfriend was very worried about you.”

Wesley continued to stare, unfocused, at the very Romulan looking woman who seemed to be talking to him. He was beginning to wonder if he had hit his head at some point because he was sure she had just called him by someone else’s name.

“What?” he asked quietly as he tried to shake off the fog. 

“My name is Dr. Pel. I was able to stabilize you and reverse your pneumonia. I also gave you several injections to help restore your immune system and fight off any further infection,” she explained. “Do you understand?”

Wesley nodded slowly. Only he didn’t really understand. Some things were beginning to come back to him. Feeling sick, like he was dying; Lore holding his head under their water. Lore—how could he forget Lore and the evil glint in his eyes. 

It was miraculous that he wasn’t dead, but even so, Lal would have been alone with Lore for some time. Wesley was honestly more afraid of what the android could do to her than anything possible torture he could inflict on him. 

As the doctor was about to leave his side Wesley caught her hand. “Where is...my girlfriend?”

“Oh, she’s helping Cain repair the replicator. I told him I wanted proof that it worked before I left,” she said with a sly grin. “Alice was very brave. You’re very lucky. Some girls fall to pieces when someone they care about is ill, or injured.”

The boy was sure of it now. Something strange was going on. He nodded again, just as slowly as before. This time he let the doctor leave. He was starting to think that maybe Lore’s craft had been hijacked by Romulans. If that was the case they could be in some sort of prison camp. Although it was peculiar that a doctor had helped heal him instead of just having him executed. He reasoned that maybe they had figured out who he was and that he would be more useful as a bargaining chip. The only flaw in his reasoning was that if they knew who he was why was she calling him ‘Richie’?

A few minutes passed and Lal entered the small room. She smiled brightly when she saw that his eyes were open. She all but ran over and threw herself over him, hugging him tight.

“Wesley, I was so scared,” she said. Then she kissed him lovingly and rested her head on his chest. “How do you feel?”

“Exhausted...and confused,” he confided. “But so relieved to see you. Where are we; where is Lore; and who are Alice and Cain?”

Lal looked behind her before kissing his cheek and explaining. “Doctor Pel only knows Lore as ‘Cain’. I am Alice and you are Richie; at least while the doctor is here.”

Wesley grinned a little at the shortened use of his middle name—Richard. He could also see the correlation between Lal and Alice, they had a similar sound. It was Lore being referred to as Cain that was the most amusing. He imagined if Data were around he would most definitely be ‘Abel’. One day, when they were home safe and all of this was behind them, they could laugh about it.

“Pel is Romulan. Do you think we’re near the Neutral Zone?” Wesley asked Lal as he smoothed her hair.

“I do not know,” she replied. “What I do know is that Lore has helped you even when he did not want to. He is also allowing me to refer to him as my uncle.”

Wesley didn’t know if he liked the sound of that, but it could be to their advantage if their captor was showing signs of weakness when it came to Lal and her needs. 

“Why did he change his mind and save me?”

Lal raised her head from his chest and seemed to consider his question for a moment. “I do not know. It is possible that my hysterical state prompted him to reconsider allowing you to die.”

“You were hysterical?” he croaked with sudden alarm. “Lal, are you alright? Did Lore hurt you?”

“Lore has not done anything to me accept threatening to harm you. I am fine now that you are fine,” she said. She touched his face and smiled weakly. “I thought I would lose you and be left all alone with a murderous stranger.”

Wesley closed his eyes. What a mess. All they wanted was to go planet-side and have a little fun; enjoy a holiday before he went off to take his academy entrance exams. Now they were in trouble and he had almost died at least twice. Worst of all, he had no idea how he was going to get them rescued. His brain was still slow and his whole body felt heavy like someone had tripled the gravity in the room.

He let out a steadying breath and opened his eyes again. “Lal, you need to follow Lore around. Try to get a good idea of where we are and what technology is around. Just be quiet, polite and do as he says. Maybe if he believes you want to get to know him he’ll talk about himself and give away something we can use.”

“That is all very good, but what if he wants me to do something that I am not willing to do?”

“Let’s hope that he doesn’t and if he does, maybe it’ll be something I can do instead,” he offered to help put her mind at ease. “I should be feeling better in a day or two.”

“Alright,” Lal conceded, although she didn’t like the idea of Wesley doing something amoral anymore than herself being forced to. “Are you hungry? The replicator is working.”

“Just thirsty. I think I’ll stick to water for now, thank you,” Wesley replied with appreciation.

.....


	4. Love is a Lie

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lore and Lal get into an argument. It’s difficult to say who wins.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warnings for violence, mild torture, poisoning, kidnapping, tantrums, trauma, sexual references, mentions of rape and any other terrible thing that Lore might do. If I missed something important please let me know.

Lore called Lal into the other room. He didn’t like how long she had been sitting alone with Wesley and he was beginning to get suspicious that they were conspiring against him. 

Lal helped Wesley take another sip of water before placing the glass on the floor beside the mattress. She watched him lie down as she quickly backed out of the room. She was reluctant to leave his side, but knew she must obey their captor. As Lal walked into the adjacent living space, Lore waved for her come and sit beside him. 

She obediently arranged herself and sat down on the large lumpy two seater sofa. Lore caught one of her flesh-toned hands and held it in both of his larger golden hands. Something pulled in the girl’s chest. The gesture reminded her so much of her father—it made her miss him. That was until she realized that Lore was not really holding her hand, he was examining it.

“Data did an impeccable job,” Lore commented as he pulled up her sleeve and continued his inspection. “You can pass for human. Too bad you have his flaw...I’ve noticed that you never use contractions.”

Lal snatched her hand back from him. “I have used them in the past, however it was just before I went into cascade failure. I prefer not to now as a precaution, in case it was part of the problem.”

“I don’t understand, you experienced an onset of cascade failure and recovered?” His amazement was obvious and she was worried that he wouldn’t believe her. “Maybe that’s why you survived almost losing your little pet.”

“Wesley is not my pet. He is my boyfriend,” she said adamantly. “I do not suppose you would understand. You have probably never loved anyone in your whole pathetic existence.” She realized too late that she was meant to remain polite and get him to talk about himself. Angering him was not part of her instruction.

Lore stood abruptly and took a few steps away from her. He picked up a random discarded piece of tech, the place was littered with it, and threw it at the wall. It shattered into tiny bits. Then he turned around and was suddenly nose to nose with her, like the last time he lost his temper. 

“Love isn’t what you think it is,” he growled. “It’s a lie made up by organic lifeforms to make them feel better about being saddled with raising offspring and caring for the sick and elderly. It’s not real and you don’t need it!”

“Why did you hold me? Why would you seem to convey some sort of kindness if you claim not to believe in love?”

Lore stood to his full height and looked down at her, a sickening smirk on his face. “Because I knew you believed the lie, ‘Beloved’.”

He said her name like some sort derogatory slur. She knew she should have heeded Wesley’s advice, but still found herself fighting back. 

“Love is not a lie! Something in you knows this! Something in you wants to be good, wants to be loved!” She was shouting, she didn’t even know why.

Her words did something to him. They made something twist uncomfortably in his gut and he needed her to shut up.

“I would stop talking now. You wouldn’t want to see me actually get angry,” Lore warned her as he grabbed her arm and forced to her stand.

“I am not afraid of you,” she snapped defiantly. “You are a pathetic, lonely creature who refuses to see the universe for all it’s wondrous beauty!”

“My brother certainly made you to be quite the naive little girl.”

“I chose this form. I chose my species, gender and age. If I am naive I suppose I choose to be. I would rather be a ‘good little girl’ than an evil broken thing like you!”

Lore was holding onto her arm so fiercely that he seemed ready to rip it off and beat her with it. Then the floor suddenly creaked and they both broke free of their rage. They turned their heads in unison to see Wesley barely standing upright in the doorway.

“Wesley!” Lal cried out her boyfriend’s name as she rushed over to him. 

For some unknown reason Lore let her go to him. Their argument and his threats no longer relevant compared to the twisting in his gut. The recesses of his memory told him this was guilt, but he had never felt guilty about anything and he wasn’t going to start feeling it now. So he pushed it down as he glared at the young lovers.

“What’s going on? Why are you yelling?” the boy asked, his voice rough, as he leaned on her.

“You should be lying down,” she said softly.

“I thought Lore was going to kill you,” he told her with distress.

“Maybe I should. She’s already been too much trouble,” Lore said offhandedly.

Wesley glared back at Lore for a moment, but didn’t have the energy to argue. Then he allowed Lal to help him back to bed. She lay a blanket over him and apologized again.

“I am sorry. I do not understand why I became so angry.”

The boy sighed and held her hand. “You can’t let him get to you. You need to be nice no matter what. If you can’t stay civil just stay quiet.”

Unbeknownst to them Lore stood close to the open doorway and listened in this time. 

“He is so contrary. One moment he is kind and the next he is cruel. Perhaps if I can show him some compassion, some understanding he might be swayed to release us,” said Lal.

“I can’t see him letting us go. Besides, he hates me, Lal. He wants me dead,” Wesley told her bluntly.

“Why? What could you have done? You are just one boy,” she said sadly.

Wesley was too groggy to get into it. In the end he knew his opinion didn’t matter. As long as Lore had it in for him, he was as good as dead.

“Lal, I need to sleep now. Just promise to be good,” he begged.

“I promise Wesley,” she told him. Then she kissed his forehead and left the room.

The golden android sneered at her as she walked past him and sat back on the small sofa.

“Tell me you don’t let that juvenile peon fuck you?” Lore snarled with disgust.

Lal held her tongue and looked at the floor. She noticed how it could use a good clean. In fact, the whole place was in need of some serious attention.

Lore came to stand over her again and narrowed his eyes. “Let me guess...he’s convinced you it’s making love? How foul that he should be allowed to touch you let alone stick his dick inside of you.”

The girl closed her eyes tight as if that would stop her from hearing his terrible words. Lore smirked at her obvious discomfort. 

“Did you know that the colonists were so afraid of me that my creator took away my sexuality programming? Hmm? What kind of father does that? He basically neutered me. Why bother instilling a sense of love, family and humanity only to castrate me and take away my freedom of choice?” Lore paused in his rant when he realized that she was still pretending to ignore him. He decided it didn’t matter. He knew that she could hear him even if she didn’t want to. 

“Oh well, maybe I should be thanking Dr. Soong. Because of him I was forced to find other forms of pleasure. Other more satisfying methods of feeling that rush, that thrill,” he added suggestively.

“By maiming and murdering people?” Lal asked quietly with her eyes still closed.

“Sometimes predators will play with their food for fun before killing it outright,” he said sharply. Then he sat down next to her and put his mouth close to her ear. “Watching Wesley suffer over and over again has been rather fun for me so far,” he whispered provocatively.

Lal didn’t react; she didn’t reply and she didn’t give him the satisfaction of looking terrified. Instead she let out a methodical, even breath and kept her eyes closed.

“He isn’t wrong—the boy. Once I’ve found a way to show you what you’re capable of and how you’ve been misled, I will kill him,” Lore said as he sat back and continued to watch her struggle to remain neutral. “Better yet, I might have you kill him. Call it a right of passage. One day you’ll understand how he violated and used you and you’ll want to murder him.”

Lal opened her eyes and looked at him, but it wasn’t fear that Lore saw, it was pity. 

“I am sorry that your own father turned against you, Uncle Lore. That sounds so tragic and unfair,” she told him with sincerity. “An admiral threatened to take me away from my father and I almost caused my own cascade failure because I became so distraught. I cannot imagine the pain and neglect you have suffered alone for all this time.”

Lore stood abruptly and marched away from her. He opened a tool kit and dug through its contents. After a moment he returned with an instrument in his hand. He went to hold her head and she resisted.

“Stop it! What are you doing?” she cried.

“What you’re feeling...empathy, sympathy? It’s a crutch. It’s a flaw in your programming that Data passed along to you,” he explained tersely. “I’m going to correct it. I’m going to release you from your chains and shut off your ethical protocols. You deserve better than to be a puppet controlled by unnecessary strings.”

“No. I do not want that. I want to know what is right and what is wrong.”

“Little girl, you’ll still know the difference. Only after you’re free you’ll be able to do whatever you want instead of what they tell you to do.”

“You are insane. I will never be like you,” she said with conviction.

“Then it won’t matter if I give you a little tune up, will it?” he snarled.

He lunged at her and grasped her head firmly. She flailed her arms and tried to hit him with her hands. She could feel him release one of the panels that covered her inner cranial workings.

“What if we can restore you!?” she blurted with desperation. “What if Wesley and I can repair your physical paralysis and use my sexuality programming to reinitiate yours?”

“So I can become some horny, sex fixated delinquent? I think I’ll pass,” Lore snarked. “Now hold still. You wouldn’t want me to adjust the wrong thing and turn you into a vegetable.”

Lal stopped fighting him, but it was an empty victory. Lore could feel her tears where his hand was holding her face. 

He hesitated before groaning loudly and letting her go. “Fine. Stay in your cage,” he growled as he threw down the tool and backed off. “But if I ever catch that boy touching you the wrong way I’ll neuter him with my bear hands.”

The girl continued to silently cry as she snapped her scalp plate back into place. More than ever she wanted to go home. Lal picked up the instrument from the floor and tucked into one of her pockets. Maybe Wesley could find a use for it. Then she looked around the room at all the scattered tech. 

She decided that she would tidy up. The place was in such disarray that she could easily pocket anything else that may be useful. She would tell Lore later that it was a peace offering. She wanted to clean up the chaos around him so that maybe he wouldn’t feel so out of control. Maybe he would believe her, maybe he wouldn’t. One thing was certain, she was done trying to figure him out. He was exactly as he appeared; a damaged soul who would never change unless he wanted to; and Lal could tell that he had no intention of changing.

......

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Felt like posting another bit for my lovely readers. Lore may have seemed almost normal in the last part, but he’s back to being angry and bitter here. Thank you for the kudos and comments and critiques are always welcome :)


	5. A Beacon of Hope

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The new normal starts to set in. We get a glimpse of a familiar face.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warnings for violence, mild torture, poisoning, kidnapping, tantrums, trauma, sexual references, mentions of rape and any other terrible thing that Lore might do. If I missed something important please let me know.

When Wesley was well enough to move around on his own again he was fitted with an arm band. Lore called it a form of house arrest. 

“If you stray too far from the base, which I keep locked in my office, it will give you a little shock,” Lore explained as he secured the device. “Continue on too far and it will electrocute you with a surge that will stop your heart. Only I know the code to remove it and tampering with it will have the same result as straying; instant death.”

When he was done, the android patted the boy’s cheek with a parody of affection. Wesley couldn’t help but flinch when his golden hand touched his face.

“Nothing for Lal?” Wesley commented as he looked down to examine the band.

“I don’t need to tether my niece. You’re her tether,” Lore replied with a smirk.

They had only been away from home for a few days, but it already felt like an eternity. The days were quickly getting colder, but with Lore being an android the environmental controls weren’t quite up to dealing with the sudden change in temperature. So Wesley got permission to start making improvements. He might as well have something to do other than sit around waiting to die.

Lore was currently locked away in his office discussing some important ‘job’ over the communications relay. They were working outside for the morning; or at least Wesley was. It was brisk and although Lal didn’t mind, Wesley would shiver from time to time and she could tell that his fingers were getting quite cold.

When Lal wasn’t watching her boyfriend’s hands she was staring at the black band on his arm. This was the third time that hour that she hyper-fixated on the thing. She didn’t like it. She didn’t like anything about what was happening. 

What bothered her more than the poor living conditions and how Lore continued to mistreat them was the overall feeling of uncertainty. It was clear that her uncle had no idea what to do with them. 

“I have not been able to understand my uncle any better,” Lal said as she came closer to try and block the wind. 

Wesley startled a little when she spoke. She had been so quiet before that her voice felt unexpected. Besides, he wasn’t sleeping well and seemed to be constantly on edge.

“All I have gotten out of him is that he believes that love is a lie and I should be freed from the chains of my ethical programming,” she continued.

“Yeah, that sounds about right,” Wesley said with a shake of his head as he continued to work. “Lore is a monster.”

He was currently running a diagnostic scan on environmental controls. His thick blanket wasn’t cutting it anymore at night and he was determined to get the heat working. He thought it was strange how most of the system controls were on the outside of the strange structure. He theorized that it was probably part of a larger structure at one time, a ship or a compound perhaps. Sleeping in the Runabout was out of the question. Lore made sure it was too far away to reach with the armband and Wesley was too good a pilot to be trusted anyhow.

“I find myself wanting to know why,” she said after a moment of consideration. “Why is my father so compassionate and earnest, while Lore is selfish and cruel?”

“Maybe despite his creator’s best efforts there is still something fundamentally wrong with him,” he replied. “Yesterday he joked about sending me home. Then he laughed and asked if I thought my mother was a brilliant enough surgeon to put me back together like some sort of human jigsaw puzzle; because he would be sending me home in pieces. ‘Pieces’, Lal. He thought that was funny.”

She couldn’t help but cringe at very idea. “I know he can be offensive, but there are the odd moments when he can be kind. I only wish that he would allow himself to appreciate what kindness could bring him.”

“Maybe he feels like it’s too late for him. Maybe after everything that happened on Omicron Theta he can’t see any life where he isn’t treated like a criminal,” Wesley reasoned. then he paused and gave her an auspicious look. “Hey, Lal...Lore hasn’t tried anything with you has he? I mean, you would tell me, right?”

“Tried anything like what? I just told you about how he wanted to discontinue my ethical programming,” she said with obvious confusion.

“No, I mean...sexually,” he said dropping his voice low.

She still looked confused as she titled her head to the side. “No. Why would he? I am his niece.”

“And he’s a demented android who believes that he doesn’t have to abide by any laws, including those of nature,” he elaborated.

“He claims to have no interest in sexual behaviours,” Lal told him firmly. She wasn’t sure that it was relevant to share that he lacked the ability all together. “It is beneath him.”

“Oh, well...good.”

Lal considered Wesley’s irrational concerns for a moment. Then a thought occurred to her. “Wesley, has my father ever told you how to turn him off?” 

“No,” Wesley said with another shake of his head.

“There is an indentation,” Lal told him as she came even closer to him and lowered her voice, “in his lower back. I have one too. I believe that Lore should have one as well. You simply need to slip a finger into it and tap the switches.”

He gave her a look of expressed annoyance. “Why are you telling me this? If you’ve known about this switch why didn’t you just try and flip it yourself?”

“Why do you sound angry with me?” she asked a little hurt by his tone.

“Because, Lal, you’re the strong android. I’m just the weak fleshy kid whose bones Lore will crush if I try something like turning him off and fail,” he ranted unkindly.

“Oh,” she said simply as she considered his reasoning. She had to admit that it he most likely correct. “My apologies. I suppose the strain of being away from the familiar and the lack of safety has caused me to be less than objective in my thought processes.”

“It’s fine. I’m sorry too. I didn’t mean to take out my frustration on you. You haven’t had any training when comes to hardships, or life threatening situations. I’ve only had a little myself. The only other time I was kidnapped it was with a group of other children. We basically went on a hunger strike, but I don’t think Lore will care much if I voluntarily starve myself to death.”

“He may even be glad of it,” added Lal after reflecting. “At least he seems to be leaving us alone most of the time.”

“Sure, I’m free labour,” Wesley told her as he made an adjustment and forced a lever with some effort. “And you’re like some sort nightingale in a gilded cage. He keeps you around to amuse himself when he wants and the rest of the time you just get to sit around and look nice.”

“What were you expecting?” she asked with curiosity.

Wesley sat down on the hard ground and rubbed his hands together while he considered her question. Lal quickly realized that he needed warming up so she sat next him, took his hands in her own and turned up her internal temperature.

“Thanks,” he said with a weak smile. “Honestly, I have no idea what he’ll do with us. I’m amazed that I’m still alive. I don’t think he knows what do with you; you were a complete surprise to him. I’m just glad he hasn’t tried to alter your programming again.”

“I believe that stealing me away from his brother was enough to satisfy him initially,” Lal commented. “Poor, Father.”

“At least it’s not like Data is sick with worry,” offered Wesley. 

Just then Lore stuck his head out the main door and scowled at them. “Hey, what did I tell you two about intimate touching!?” he yelled over at them. “Don’t make me cut your hands off. Then you’ll be entirely useless.”

“Wesley is cold. He needs proper attire if you want him to continue working out of doors in this weather,” complained Lal. “What if he were to get pneumonia again?”

Lore rolled his eyes at her. “Did you at least fix the heating, kid?”

Wesley nodded, “I think so. Let me make one last adjustment then you can switch it on and tell me if it’s working.”

“Lal, come inside. He doesn’t need you bothering him while he works,” Lore commanded with a snap of his fingers.

The girl looked hesitant, but knew she had better do what she was told. So she let go of her boyfriend’s hands and went inside.

“Yell when you’re ready,” said Lore before disappearing again.

Wesley sighed as he stood up. He picked up a tool and went to work. When he was satisfied he called out for Lore to try turning on the generator.

“Nothing! You sure you know what you’re doing?” came Lore’s rude reply.

“Yes! Turn it off and I’ll try one more thing,” he called back. 

Wesley actually didn’t really know what he was doing, but this was normal for him. He liked solving puzzles and figuring out how things worked. Besides, it was better than freezing to death waiting for Lore to get around it.

There was a loud ‘clunk’ as the generator shut down. After another adjustment, Wesley tried one more calibration. Then, just as he was about to call to Lore to try again, he felt someone come to stand behind him.

As Wesley turned around he dropped the tool from his hand. For a moment he thought he was hallucinating. Four feet away from him, in a heavy hooded cloak, stood the ghost of Tasha Yar.

“Geez, kid. Aren’t you cold?” she asked with obvious concern.

He wanted to reply but couldn’t find the words. Not only did she look like her, but she sounded like her too.

“What the hell is taking so long?” complained Lore as he came back outside to check his progress. Then the android spotted their unexpected guest. “Oh, it’s you. What are you doing here?”

“Nice to see you too, Cain,” the woman remarked with a sardonic edge. “Please tell me this isn’t the same boy that Pel treated earlier this week; the one on death’s door?”

“Go inside Richie,” Lore barked. “You should know better than to be out here when it’s so cold.”

When Wesley stayed frozen in place, Lore took him roughly by the arm and guided him indoors. The hooded woman followed them and closed the door against the chill.

“It feels almost as cold in here,” she commented. When the woman frowned it accentuated the creases in her face, giving away the fact that she was much older than the woman Wesley remembered.

Lore grumbled something and turned on the generator. This time when he hit the heating panel it jumped to life and the room started to warm up almost instantly. “The kid was fixing a glitch in the system.”

“Here, wear my cloak until you warm up,” the woman said kindly as she deposited the heavy cloak over his shoulders. Wesley stared at her shoulder length silvery blond locks and unmistakable human features. “Wait...I think I know you,” she said slowly.

Wesley tried to give her psychic warning and shook his head. “Um...I just have that look. People always think that they know me from somewhere.”

“I’m Ashara Tayn, Pel’s partner. She had another remote patient to check on, but wanted to be sure you were doing alright. So, I volunteered to check on you,” the blond explained. “Good thing I did too.”

“Oh please, the boy is fine,” Lore said with offence. Then he added, “Asha has memory problems. She thought she knew me too when we first met.” Wesley caught the glare in the woman’s eyes when the android used the unfavourable nickname.

“Oh, you have trouble with your memory? How come?” asked Wesley innocently.

“Rude, Richie. Don’t bother the woman with your inane questions,” Lore told him with annoyance. “He’s fine. All better,” he said to the woman who wasn’t Tasha with an obviously false smile on his lips. “You can tell Pel I managed to keep him alive.”

“They’re predicting quite a squall, Cain. I can’t imagine you want these two kids staying with you for another couple of weeks...there are two of you, correct?” Ashara looked around the room for evidence of a second youth.

Wesley nodded numbly. It was so weird for him to be talking to someone who could be his dead friend’s clone and not have her know him.

“Yeah, me and my girlfriend, Alice,” he managed after a moment.

“They’re fine to stay here. I’m actually getting used to having them around,” Lore interjected quickly. “We even got the environmental controls functioning again. So you can tell Dr. Pel not to worry. When the storm clears they can contact their parents and be on their way.”

“You sure you’re okay to stay here, kid?” Ashara asked skeptically. 

“Yep...totally. Cain’s been really hospitable,” Wesley said slightly unconvincingly. “Okay, he’s been decent.”

Ashara was about to leave when she remembered her cloak. She came in close to Wesley and looked over her shoulder to see if Lore was watching them. When she was sure that he wasn’t she moved so that she could whisper in the boy’s ear.

“Wes, are you sure you’re okay? I can try to contact someone for you.”

The boy’s eyes went wide for a moment, but he quickly hid his surprise. He risked one word back to her, “Picard.”

Then, just like that, she took back her cloak and threw it around her shoulders. “Bye, Cain. I wish I could stay longer, but I just remembered that we don’t like each other,” she said flatly.

Wesley stood staring at the closed door after Ashara was gone, his heart racing so fast that he thought he might black out. He couldn’t be sure if their exchange had been real, or all in his head.

“Damned nosy neighbours,” muttered Lore, bringing Wesley back into focus. “Don’t ever speak to those two when I’m not around. I know you wouldn’t want their blood on your hands.”

Although Lore sounded casual, Wesley knew better than to doubt the android’s threat. 

....

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Notes: I know Tasha’s name is literally one letter away from her sister Ishara, but I tried rearranging the letters in Natasha Yar and came up with Ashara Tayn. Also I think it would be like her to choose a name so familiar.


	6. Prelude To A Kiss

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lore’s tolerance is wearing thin.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warnings for violence, mild torture, poisoning, kidnapping, tantrums, trauma, sexual references, mentions of rape and any other terrible thing that Lore might do. If I missed something important please let me know.

Wesley debated telling Lal about meeting Tasha, or Ashara, or whoever she was. He decided against it. He didn’t want to risk jinxing their chances of rescue. Plus there was still a vague possibility that he had imagined the whole exchange. After all, his Tasha Yar was dead. How could this woman possible be her and know who he was?

The only glimmer of hope was that she knew his real name. She had called him ‘Wes’. As long as she also knew who Picard was they were as good as saved. It made sense...if Ashara mistook Lore for Data when they first met it stood to reason that she told Lore the lie about having memory problems; in case calling him out had dire consequences. That was what he chose to believe anyways.

But then Wesley remembered that Tasha was still alive when they found Lore. Not only had met, they had conversed. Why would Lore pretend not to know someone unless it served so kind of purpose? 

As if reading his mind, Lore approached Wesley. He handed him a bowl of hot stew and sat next to him on the two-seater sofa.

“You recognized her, didn’t you?” he asked quietly as he watched the boy’s face.

“What? Who?” Wesley remarked casually as he scooped up a spoonful and blew on it.

Lore clicked his tongue and Lal looked up from her reading material. She had been tucked away in the other room when their visitor stopped by earlier.

“Who is it, Uncle?”

“Dr. Pel’s partner, Ashara,” said Lore just as nonchalantly.

“She sort of looked like someone I used to know,” Wesley said with a shrug.

“You didn’t say anything to her...anything the two of you might regret?” Lore pressed.

“No, of course not. What would I have said? Excuse me but you look my dead friend and by the way this guy is holding us hostage?”

“You did not say such a thing, did you?” Lal asked with alarm, missing his sarcastic tone completely.

Lore chuckled a little. Then he made an uncharacteristic playful gesture and messed the boy’s hair. “Good boy. Now eat your food before it gets cold.”

They both watched Lore walk away in stunned silence. Lal was first to break it. “Wesley?” Lal was still at a loss.

“It’s okay, Lal. I didn’t say anything to her. I didn’t want to put her life in danger,” he explained plainly.

The girl looked relieved. Then she came over and snatched the spoon from him before he could put it in his mouth. Wesley gave her a confused look as she ate the stew.

“It has not been poisoned,” she remarked after analyzing the contents. “It is safe to consume.”

Wesley hadn’t even been thinking about the possibility that Lore would dare to poison him a second time, but obviously Lal had. He pulled her down for a quick kiss and then began eating his food. He was hungry after working all morning outside.

The next day, Lal was going a little stir crazy. Lore observed her as she tried to even out the plush filler in one of the seat cushions. After days of sitting on the lumps she was determined to flatten them out.

“What are you doing?” asked Lore as he gave her a bemused look.

“This furniture is old and uncomfortable,” she replied.

Lore knew she must have meant it was uncomfortable for the boy. The thought made him frown. “Do you even realize that you’re already his slave? You taste his food, make his bed and now you’re fluffing his cushions?”

Lal did her best to ignore him. She didn’t want to argue again.

“Stop,” Lore demanded as he charged over to her and held her firmly by her wrists. Lal dropped the large seat cushion to the floor and stared up into his face.

“I want to make this place nice for us, Uncle. Especially if it is to be our home now,” she said quietly.

“You and I don’t need ‘nice’. We’re fine with adequate,” he said coldly. “This is all for that human and I can’t abide you cleaning and primping for him.”

“He makes me happy, therefore I want to do things to make him happy.”

“What does that idiot do that makes you so damn happy?” Lore questioned as he released his hold on her.

Lal didn’t speak. Instead she moved closer and slipped her arms under his and wrapped them behind his back. It took Lore a beat to understand that she was hugging him. He tried to resist her gesture of affection, but something inside him made him stand there and accept it. It was that little part of him that could still remember how his mother used to hold him and tell him that he was loved even after he had a bad argument with his father, or after one the colonists was cruel to him.

It didn’t make any sense that this girl should remind him of Juliana. As far as he was concerned his brother didn’t know the woman existed. It was just a coincidence. A terrible, seductive coincidence.

Lal was hoping that Lore would give in. If her uncle could relax and give into her distraction she could try and access his switch. Her arms were just long enough to reach, but if he realized what she was doing too soon she was sure to get caught.

Unfortunately for her, Lore never fully reciprocated. He remained stiff in his posture for most of their contact. There was one fleeting moment when she believed that he might return the gesture, but he quickly regained composure and made her remove her arms. 

“Affection is a weakness,” he said bitterly, no louder than a whisper. “One day you’ll understand. One day someone you care for, someone like Wesley, will look at you with distain and horror and you’ll know you were wrong to believe that they could ever truly love you.”

“You are wrong,” she answered back with defiance. “Wesley is steadfast.”

Lore’s mood shifted in an instant. He stalked off into the other room where Wesley was repairing the environmental controls. The heating seemed to only be functioning in the main living area and not in his makeshift bedroom. 

The android violently yanked the boy down from the chair he was standing on and tossed him effortlessly onto the mattress. Wesley was dazed momentarily by what had happened. He could hear Lal call out his name as Lore descended on him like a wild beast. Before he could react, not that it would matter, Lore had him from behind in a choke hold.

“Let him go!” cried Lal.

Lore glared at her cruelly before turning his full attention on his prey. 

“What do you think, little man?” he asked melodically as he tightened his arm around Wesley’s neck. “Should I let you go?”

Wesley could barely manage to breath let alone answer. He was doing his best not to panic and waited to see how this was going to play out.

A sickening smirk spread across Lore lips. He looked as though maybe he had come up with something better than strangling the life out of him. Wesley’s felt his heart stop, dreading what that could possibly be.

“Fine, Beloved, I’ll let him go; but you have to promise me something first,” Lore instructed.

“Promise...what sort of promise?” she asked, the tremble of fear back in her voice.

“I will release my hold on your lover if you promise to do to him whatever I tell you,” he explained.

Lal looked more than a little confused. She desperately locked eyes with Wesley and made a silent plea for his guidance. She tried to gauge in her mind what would be worse, watching her maniacal uncle kill the boy she loved, or being forced to kill him herself. 

She took a tentative step towards them and nodded. “Yes...I will do whatever you ask of me.”

Lore released his hold and stood up in one fluid motion. He gestured for her to take his place. When she hesitated he reminded her of the band on Wesley’s arm. He could take his life anytime he wanted to.

Lal sat down on the mattress and closed her eyes. She could feel Wesley shift closer to her. When she opened her eyes again she could see the unspoken pity in his sad brown eyes.

“Good. First I want you to take his left hand and break his finger,” Lore said with authority. “Anyone you like. I want proof that you mean what say.”

The girl swallowed hard and took her boyfriend’s left hand in hers. She took her time, tracing her index finger down the short length of Wesley’s pinky. The gesture was affectionate despite the promise of pain to follow. She decided that this finger would be least detrimental to the use of his hand. 

“I am sorry,” she whispered as she prepared herself.

“Ah, ah...I forgot to say, but no talking,” warned Lore with annoyance. “We’ll be here forever if you take the time to beg forgiveness every time you touch him.”

That was when Wesley understood. This wasn’t just an exercise to torture him and test Lal. This was a means to an end. Their captor wanted to put a wedge between them and make him as afraid of her as he was of Lore.

Lal watched Wesley’s face as she very precisely pinched his finger and snapped it at the second joint. He cried sharply and crumpled inwards, instinctively trying to pull away from her. 

Lore leaned over to inspect her work. He frowned when he noticed she had done the least amount of damage possible. He would need to be more specific. 

“Alright. Since that was so easy, I want you to reach into his mouth and pull out one of his back molars. Doesn’t have to be clean. You can just break off the crown if you want. It’ll be more painful that way.”

Both Wesley and Lal turned to stare up at Lore, like bookends with their mouths agape in horror. The android looked fairly serious about his instruction. 

“Do it, little niece, or I’ll just rip all of his teeth out,” he added fiercely.

“I do not understand,” said Lal sheepishly. “You were going to strangle him to death and now you want me to torture him endlessly?”

“Fine. You want to skip ahead to strangling him, go right ahead,” Lore replied with a casual shrug of his shoulders. “But best be sure he’s good and dead or we’ll resume our little exercise.”

“I do not want to kill you, Wesley, but at least if you are dead...” Lal stopped talking. She didn’t want to fuel her uncle’s rage, or remind him of all the fun he would be missing out on.

“Watching you murder your lover will keep me happy for years. I can replay the memory file over and over again,” Lore said with an eerie calm. “I suppose you can too, Beloved.”

Something inside of Wesley snapped. He couldn’t allow Lal to be the one to kill him. If he was doomed to die anyways it would be by Lore’s hand and not hers. He jumped up and shoved the golden android with everything he had. 

Lore actually teetered slightly, taken off guard by his sudden outburst. Then he snatched Wesley’s wrist and harshly pulled his left arm behind his back. 

“You little shit,” Lore hissed into his ear. “We were just getting started. She wasn’t actually going to kill you. Lal can’t kill anyone as long as her ethical programming is working,” he explained as he pressed on the boy’s broken pinky, eliciting a new ear piercing scream of pain. “What did you think you were going to do? Run away? Save her?”

The android was distracted by his own clever exposition and almost missed Lal moving behind him. Lore turned before she could try for his switch and shoved Wesley into her. She caught her boyfriend and barely kept them both from tumbling to the floor. 

“You two deserve each other,” Lore scoffed in disgust. Then he held out his hand. “I discovered that the tool I took out the other day went missing. I trust you have it, Lal.”

The girl looked away, guilt written all over her face. Somehow being called ‘Lal’ instead of ‘Beloved’ made Lore sound all the more threatening. She removed herself from Wesley’s arms and dug into her pocket. Then she reluctantly gave the thing back to her uncle. It didn’t really matter. She was never alone with Wesley for long enough to plot what to do with it.

Lore looked down at the tool and closed his hand around it. “You don’t want to hurt him? Fine. Show me how much you love each other. Show me your devotion.”

Lal had that same look of confusion. Wesley acted quickly, afraid of what else Lore might come up with if they didn’t comply. He pulled Lal to him and claimed her mouth passionately. It was first time they had really kissed since being taken. A swirl of emotion was causing Wesley’s head to spin and he found it oddly calming to lose himself in her for a moment, even if it was fleeting.

Watching them kiss didn’t have the desired result that Lore had been looking for. It wasn’t satisfying to see them cling to one another; it was upsetting. The familiar feeling of guilt forming anew and twisting up his insides. 

He was almost grateful that Wesley had rebelled when he did. Watching his niece commit cruelty on someone she still cared for was almost worse than the kissing. He had grown so used to solitude and his own loneliness that witnessing real affection was unbearable.

“Enough.” 

The one word brought them both back to reality. Wesley tenderly wiped away the tears that had streaked down Lal’s cheeks. It would seem her emotions were becoming harder to repress.

“Fix the fucking heat duct. It’s freezing in here,” Lore muttered before turning on his heel and leaving the room.

As Lal watched her uncle walk away and disappear behind his office door, she wondered who it was that had hurt him. Somehow she could sense that it pained him to see them so loving with another. Lore had spoken about his father’s betrayal several times, but this time felt as though there was someone else who had cut him deeper. She would just have to keep trying to get him to trust her.

......


	7. From Worse to Worser Still

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lore is being nice, which can’t be a good thing.

Later, Wesley sat on the floor, tinkering with air exchange vent in his bedroom. Lore leaned on the door frame and watched him. The android looked as though he had something to say.

“It’s not her you know,” he commented flatly as he crossed his arms in front of his chest.

The android’s voice made the boy jump and he wasn’t sure if this was another one of his games.

“Lore, drop it. I know it wasn’t her. Tasha died two years ago,” he replied bluntly. He was in no mood to ‘play’. “I didn’t say anything and I’m not plotting ways to give her a message.”

“Oh she’s dead? Good,” said Lore devoid of compassion. Even though he sounded satisfied, he lingered and watched as Wesley pried open the vent so that the warm air could circulate through better. 

Lore noticed how the boy was careful not to knock his broken finger. Much to his dismay, Lal had lovingly stabilized it with some scrap metal.

“It’s funny...” Lore began as he let his eyes study Wesley, resting on him a little longer than was probably necessary for his android recall. “You and I may have been friends in another lifetime.”

Wesley very much doubted that. It was clear that Lore was bat-shit crazy and hated him. They also differed greatly on how they viewed the universe in general. Wesley couldn’t wait to unravel its mysteries and explore all its wonders; while he was sure—given the chance—Lore would burn it all away in one grand supernova of destruction. 

The boy chose not to respond, keeping his focus on the vent, praying that Lore would walk away without further comment.

“I was pissed off at my creator when I tried to kill your crew...I realize now that if I had let bygones be bygones that no one would have even suspected I had anything to do with the destruction of Omicron Theta.”

Wesley stopped what he was doing. He couldn’t believe that after everything that had happened and all the hostility that the android was chatting with him as though they were pals.

“Data only wanted to get to know you,” Wes said offhandedly.

Lore sighed and straightened his posture. “Yeah, I know. I actual regret what an asshole I was to him. I should have taken advantage of him not remembering me and our relationship.”

Then Lore caught the look the boy was giving him. “Right...I mean taken a different approach. Clearly, I did take advantage of him.”

“You know what I could never put together?” Since they were taking, He thought he might as well ask. “How you had anything to do with the attack on the colony. You had been disassembled for weeks, right?”

Wesley could tell that his question hit a nerve. He wasn’t sure if it was the mention of being disassembled that stung, or the fact that maybe Lore had been taking credit for something he had no control over.

“That Crystalline Entity was the closest thing I had to an actual friend,” Lore told him. There was something new in his tone. Something almost human. “What does it matter now? Soong took me apart and now they’re all dead.”

“Lore, be honest...how many people have you actually killed? Like, intentionally?” Wesley knew it was a risk to ask something so provocative, but maybe he could find a chink in the android’s armour.

“More than is any of your damned business,” he replied. Much to Wesley’s surprise, Lore didn’t sound angry at all. He sounded defeated. “Look, kid..there is no happy ending here. So let’s just get along for as long as we can for Lal’s sake, okay?”

There it was, that underlying threat to his life. It was still there and it still scared him. 

Wesley bit back a renewed wave of panic and nodded. Sometimes he forgot how terrible things were when Lore was being so agreeable. But he was right..he was never going to reform and surrender himself now and one day he would decide to kill him, again. This time he would probably stay dead.

......

That night Wesley couldn’t sleep. Lal wasn’t allowed to be alone with him for long periods of time, so she couldn’t comfort him. His mind was starting to lose against the anxiety and terror that had been building since he first recovered. Every passing day without word from Ashara was a day spent in despair.

Wesley knew it wasn’t all in his head either. After their little chat, Lore had gotten an incoming message. The golden android was always sure to keep them in the dark about his deals. Only this time felt different. The way Lore kept looking at him afterwards, like he pitied him, started the boy into a tailspin of worst case scenarios.

The next morning Wesley had to force himself out of bed. He had barely slept at all. He could tell that Lore knew how tired he was. The android deposited a bowl of oatmeal in front of him and grimaced. 

“Eat that and then I have a job for you today,” said Lore.

“I’m not really hungry, thanks,” Wesley muttered. The truth was just the smell of the food alone was turning his stomach.

“Fine, don’t eat. You’ll regret it later when we’re halfway up the hill.”

“But there is a storm coming,” said Lal, suddenly alarmed.

“And I can’t go that far or I’ll get zapped,” noted Wesley as he raised his left arm and indicated the black band.

“Stupid boy, I’ll take the band off,” Lore chided.

“Wesley is too tired. Can you not see that he did not sleep well last night?” implored Lal. “I will go with you, Uncle. Please let Wesley stay here. I am stronger and will be better help to you.”

“No, Lal. I need Wesley to come with me...You see there is a transaction I need to make and only he can help me make it,” Lore told her, his voice almost sounding as though he had no other choice. Almost as though he didn’t want to do it.

“I do not understand,” commented Lal as she looked from Lore to Wesley.

Wesley understood. This was either his way fo taking him out and ending his life somewhere where she didn’t have to witness it, or worse. Lore might be trading him to some unknown who could do anything to him. Either way he didn’t like his odds.

“You wouldn’t want your sweet, innocent Lal to get mixed up in my less than ethical business transaction now would you, little man?”

Yep, sold to a creepy lowlife it was. “No, of course not, Lore.”

“Good boy,” Lore said almost kindly as he patted his shoulder. 

Then Lore brought out a coat and some boots from a hidden cabinet. Wesley could have used those before, but it didn’t really matter now.

“Oh, one more thing,” Lore said as he handed the boy the coat. 

He disappeared for a moment into his office area where the comm and other computer tech was locked away. When he returned he had a collar in his hand.

“What is that?” wondered Lal aloud. She watched, helplessly as her uncle disable the black band on her boyfriend’s arm and remove it; only to place the collar on him instead.

“This is reassurance,” Lore told her. “And it’s gonna pinch when I activate it.”

Wesley braced himself as Lore pressed a series of buttons at the back of the wide, flat collar that he was now wearing around his neck. He gasped when he felt two pins insert themselves into his skin. Then he felt a different sensation, as though one of the pins had injected a substance into his sub-dermal flesh.

What Wesley wanted to ask was ‘What did that thing just do?’, but when he opened his mouth no sound came out.

“Yeah, by now the vocal paralysis should be setting in,” Lore explained. “You won’t be able to talk.”

Wesley told himself not to panic. He knew it would do no good to panic. Only the more he told himself not to, the more he started to feel as though the collar was choking him. He began to claw at the thing and gasp for air. 

“It is strangling him!” Lal cried with distress. “Why are you harming him again? I thought we agreed that you would not hurt him!”

“Lal, calm down. It’s not hurting him. Wes is simply having a psychological reaction to it,” he said unmoved by her plea. Lore made the boy look him in the eyes and focus. “Relax. You don’t want to upset Lal, do you? Just take a few deep breaths and calm down.”

As Wesley seemed to come back to his senses. There was something oddly comforting when Lore talked in that soft reassuring way and looked at him like Data would. In that moment he wished there was a way to fix the android so that he was always so stable and sympathetic.

Once Lore was sure that Wesley was calm he took the arm band and clipped it onto Lal’s upper arm. He would have preferred to take her along, but he couldn’t risk drawing attention to her. No, she was better off here where she could remain hidden.

“This probably won’t kill you, but it could still damage your neural net if you try to run away while we’re gone,” Lore explained. “We don’t want that to happen, now do we?”

Lal pulled away from her uncle and ran over to Wesley. She threw her arms around him, hugging him fiercely. Lore hated it when she got clingy with the boy, but he figured that this was the last time she would have the chance, so he let her hold onto him for as long as she wanted.

“I love you,” she whispered, knowing that he couldn’t reply. It didn’t matter that he couldn’t speak, she already knew how he felt. “If I can retrieve you, I will. I promise,” she added as tears began to well up in her big brown eyes.

Wesley wanted to tell her not to try to come after him. If Ashara was unsuccessful in reaching the Enterprise he wasn’t sure that much could be done. By the time they finally came for her, he would be long gone. So he squeezed her tight, kissed her cheek and did his best not to cry.

“Okay, enough. Put on your damn boots. We have quite the climb and that storm won’t hold off forever,” grumbled Lore.

“Why are you doing this? Why send him away now?” asked Lal. 

“I need something and he’s the best currency I could offer,” confessed Lore. “Don’t be sad, Beloved. Your memories of him are probably far better than any life he could actually give you. And truthfully, if he was to stay here I would probably end up doing something to him that you would hate me for.”

“I already hate you, Uncle!” she snapped. “You’re a monster and I hate you!”

“Careful, Lal. You let a contraction slip,” warned Lore. “Now be good and stay inside.”

With one last longing look from Wesley they were gone and she was locked inside. Lal wanted to collapse in tears, but she knew it would be a waste of time and energy. Instead, she ran over to the locked office door. Maybe, if she could break in, she could work the comm system and get help.

......


	8. The Storm

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A winter storm hits as Lore leads Wesley to his fate. Lal tries to find a way to go after them.

There was no sound other than the wind in the trees and the crunch of their boots on the frosty grass.

“This is nice. I should have put that thing on you ages ago,” remarked Lore as he walked two feet behind Wesley; the collar preventing his captive from talking back.

It was steady incline, nothing too drastic, however with Wesley’s lack of sleep and food he wasn’t sure if he was going to make it all the way to their rendezvous point. The air was crisp and the odd snow flake was already falling. His only consolation was that he might actually get off this planet, where ever they were and find someone willing to help him.

“Boy you really look pathetic, kid. I actually could believe that you’re heartsick about leaving my niece,” Lore commented as he came up beside him. “Either that or you just love yourself and miss the sound of your own voice,” he added with a shrug.

Of course Wesley could only glare at his captor. He didn’t hate Lore like Lal did. Hating him would imply that he had cared for him in the first place. He mostly felt indifferent about the madman who walking him to meet his fate; and terrified, naturally. Lore was unpredictable and without any hope of rescue he could change his mind and do something horrible at any moment. So it was actually good that he was muted by the collar. It took away the risk of him shooting his mouth off and sealing his fate.

......

Lal looked for a safety release beside the door. She couldn’t figure out why, with her strength, she still couldn’t move it. She started to examine her surroundings for alternative routes of entrance. Then she recalled seeing a window when they were outside. So with a new glimmer of hope she tried the exterior door. For some reason she had an easier time and the lock gave way, the door moving under her significant use of force.

She ran outside and away from the structure to get a better look at the window and how she might reach it. She must have gone too far because the black band shocked her with a warning. It was necessary to move much closer, so she began jumping up over and over again to get a better look at how she might climb up to the high window. 

“Alice?” 

Lal turned around as she landed and saw Dr. Pel and another woman coming up the path.

“Oh Doctor, thank goodness!”

“What’s going on? Where is Cain?” asked Pel as she came closer.

“More importantly, where is Wesley?” asked Ashara.

Lal tilted her head as she regarded the woman she didn’t know...or rather that she did know from her father’s memorial hologram. “You are Tasha Yar,” said Lal in amazement.

“I don’t use that name anymore. Now I go by Ashara,” she said kindly. “How do you know that name?”

“You knew my father and Wesley,” Lal said quickly. “Oh you know Wesley!” she exclaimed with sudden realization. “You called him by his name! Lore took him!”

“Lore?” asked Pel.

“Do you mean Cain?” pressed Ashara.

“Yes. He has taken Wesley up the hillside to trade him. That is all that I know. This band on my arm is preventing me from following them. The device that activates it is in the room under that window,” she explained as she pointed upwards. “I cannot access it from inside, but I may be able to from outside if I can climb up.”

Pel pulled out a concealed phaser gun. “Do you think I could blast through the door?”

“Oh, yes. That would be better,” agreed Lal.

The three women entered the structure and Pel aimed her phaser at the office door. It took two shots before it came open.

“Be careful, Alice,” warned Ashara, “those bands can be tricky. If you don’t remove them just right, or deactivate the base in the correct sequence it could kill you.”

“Maybe you can help me to remove it?” the girl suggested. Then she thought it best to clarify who she was. “My name is not Alice. My name is Lal.”

Ashara touched the girl’s cheek affectionately and tried to remember if she had ever seen her face before or knew her name. “Who did you say your father was?”

“I did not as of yet,” replied Lal as she held her arm out for Pel to examine. “My father is Lieutenant Commander Data of the Enterprise.”

Ashara was taken aback. “That’s not possible. Data is an android,” she said in disbelief.

“As am I,” Lal told her firmly.

“Whoa, you’re an android?” questioned the Romulan doctor.

“Yes, that is correct,” the girl replied.

“Can you disconnect your arm?” added Pel with interest.

“Yes, why?”

“That’s perfect,” said Ashara as she realized what her partner was getting at. “If we brace the band with something insulated you can disconnect your arm. That way even if it goes off it may damage the one arm and not your whole body.”

“Oh...” said Lal. She hadn’t considered this option before. Originally her plan was to reach the comm relay. This was a better plan. If she was free they could after Lore, all three of them.

Once they found something to hold against the band Lal disconnected her left arm at the shoulder. After trial and error they finally got the band to release. The android’s left hand spasmed as the current ran through it, but they had done their best to ground the device and hoped that their wouldn’t be any permanent damage.

Lal reattached her arm and ran a very quick self-diagnostic. Although she could get her fingers to move a little, the arm was fairly unresponsive.

“Sorry Lal,” said Pel as she helped her make a sling to keep the arm up and out of the way. “Hopefully your father can fix it for you.”

“If I ever get back to him,” Lal added sadly.

“I sent a message out after my visit, but of course I couldn’t reveal who I was, so I’m not sure if I’ll get a response,” Ashara told the girl. “Plus there’s a lot of bureaucracy to allow permission for a federation Starship to enter the Neutral Zone let alone remove people from it.”

“I do not understand. How did you know who to contact before now?” Lal inquired as they began to make their way up the hillside.

“I suppose Wes didn’t tell you,” continued Ashara. “He and I had a moment. He told me to tell Picard where he was. The only Picard I ever knew was my captain; our captain.”

“Then you did not die?” Lal asked, though now was probably not the time to get into it. 

“No, the Tasha that your dad knew did die,” Ashara explained. “It’s a rather complicated story involving parallel time lines and time travel.”

“You might understand faster than I did,” said Pel with a chuckle. “I think I had to hear the explanation five times before I finally got it.”

“You can tell me later when Wesley is safe and Lore is apprehended,” Lal said with determination.

“How did you get tangled up with Cain—I mean ‘Lore’?” wondered Pel. “I’ve known the guy for a couple of years and I’ve never known him to hold anyone against their will before. Of course I’ve never seen him with anyone at all before. He’s sort of a hermit.”

“He is my uncle,” Lal told her plainly. “Another long story for another time, I think.”

Pel and Ashara exchanged a look. Clearly this was news to both of them. Although Ashara had suspected some relation due to Lore’s uncanny resemblance to Data, she wasn’t sure that she was expecting to hear that they were brothers.

......

The wind was picking up; the higher they went, the colder it got. Wesley stumbled. It was getting harder and harder to feel his feet. The boots had good treats for the terrain, but they were not well insulated. His face was feeling fairly numb as well. The coat barely had a collar to turn up against the frigid air and Lore hadn’t thought to give him a hat.

Wesley tripped this time and landed on his hands and knees. There were several inches of snow now, not that he could possibly feel any colder than he already was.

“Get up. We’re almost there,” Lore commanded.

When the boy didn’t obey the android grabbed one of his frozen hands to force him to stand. 

“Good grief you’re cold,” Lore spat with offence. Then he did something unexpected and took both of his hands tucked them under his very warm armpits. 

“Shut up,” he scoffed redundantly, even though Wesley couldn’t say anything. “I can’t have you losing fingers due to frostbite. You are the merchandise after all.”

As they stood there for a moment Lore placed a hand over each of Wesley’s very red-tipped ears. “Shit. We should have done this yesterday. Fucking idiot mercenaries and their bad timing. It’s not my fault the weather went to crap.”

Wesley couldn’t help the puppy dog eyes he was making. He was miserable and, as far as he knew, his life was over. He was either going to end up as someone’s plaything, or a slave in a mine or something. If having one more minute of freedom involved being this intimate with Lore he would take a thousand of them over whatever imagined terror awaited him.

“Don’t do that. Don’t try to make me feel bad,” Lore grumbled, the now familiar feeling of guilt rising like bile in his gut. “I need this intel and I don’t care about you.” Only even as he said the words he didn’t believe them anymore. “You’re a pest. You’re the pervert whose been messing around with Lal.”

Wesley tried to look away as though to show some effort that he wasn’t trying anything on purpose. It was just how he looked right now, like someone’s lost child freezing to death in a snowstorm.

“Fuck!” Lore cursed loudly as his communications unit beeped. Then they could hear thunder in the distance. “The storm is too volatile. There’s no way my liaison is beaming down in this mess.”

Wesley felt as though a weight had been lifted. He had a sudden reprieve. Except then Lore began dragging him further uphill instead of turning around.

“There’s an old cabin up the way. We’ll wait there for a break in the weather and then go back down,” the android explained. 

Ten minutes later Lore deposited him on the floor of an old metal structure. It was less a cabin and more of a bunker. He pulled out a small phaser and aimed at Wesley. As the boy cowered and covered his head Lore fired at a metal bulkhead beside him, heating it up.

“There, don’t say I never do anything nice for you,” he grumbled.

It was dark inside, the snow was already packed against what few windows there were. They could hear the wind whipping at the walls and the thunder and lightning was in full force.

Lore crouched down next to Wesley. The glowing bulkhead provided just enough light for the android to examine the boy’s hands again. They were red and raw looking and he could tell they were painful.

“You’ve definitely got frostbite,” Lore said with an exasperated sigh. Then he tilted the boy’s head and touched near the edges of the collar around his neck. “Shit, this metal is biting right into your flesh.”

Wesley was confused. He would have expected Lore to be happy about his discomfort, but he actually looked upset about it. Maybe whoever he was being traded to wanted him to be pristine. This was an unsettling thought and it made his stomach twist into knots.

Lore leaned in closer and pressed the buttons at the back of the collar to release the pinching pins. Then he unlocked it and removed it completely. “Fucking Romulan tech,” Lore cursed as he flung the thing across the room. “It will probably take some time for your voice to work.”

The boy nodded slightly and pulled his legs up so that he could hug them and stay warm. He lifted the collar of his coat so that he could pull it up and cover his ears better. Then he rested his chin on his knees and closed his eyes for a moment, suddenly feeling fatigued.

Lore moved away from Wesley as he reconsidered his options. Now that they were trapped by the storm and away from Lal he was having second thoughts about how he had chosen to deal with things. He hated that the girl was all alone and that this boy was more and more like some vulnerable child and not the spiteful brat he always saw in his memories.

“I think I might return Lal to Data,” Lore said out of the blue.

Wesley wasn’t entirely sure that he was meant to hear this revelation, or if Lore believed he was asleep.

“She really is something special...something I’m not equipped to deal with,” the android added after a long silence. “But you already knew that. You can laugh at me if you want. I don’t care.”

The boy opened his eyes when it became clearer that Lore was talking to him and not just thinking out loud. He tried to reply but his voice had not returned yet.

“Go on,” prompted Lore as he sat on a broken table. “I can read your lips.”

Wesley gave him a look before mouthing the words, “You should go to Data.”

“What are you talking about?” Lore scoffed. “Oh right, I’ll just surrender to Picard and let them dissect me.”

The boy shook his head. He gave up trying to make his point. But it would seem that the android wasn’t finished his discussion. He came closer and sat across from him on the floor.

“I can’t go to Data now. I’ve done some pretty terrible things. Hell, I’ve done several terrible things to you, personally.”

Wesley mouthed the word “reset”, but Lore saw “recent”.

“Yeah, recently,” he added with a look of confusion.

The boy shook his head and tried again. “Memory reset.” He even gestured in hopes that he would understand.

“What, me?” questioned Lore as he pointed at himself. “Start over again? No thanks. I’m not my brother. Besides, I might turn out worse. I think Soong thought the same thing.” Then Lore narrowed his eyes at him. “You’re human, if I begged you for forgiveness and told you I would seek help for my mental illness would you believe me? Would you forgive me?”

Wesley knew that his sense of morality and humanity told him that if Lore was truthful and truly remorseful he should forgive him for what he had done...in time. But he didn’t believe him and couldn’t. 

Lore took his prolonged silence, or rather reluctance to communicate, as a resounding NO. 

“Yeah, I didn’t think that you would,” he grumbled as he turned around and shuffled over so that he was now sitting wedged up against him. “Fuck, you’re still really cold, kid. Look, I know you don’t trust me, but I want you to hold onto me and I’ll turn up my internal thermostat okay?”

Not having much choice, Wesley didn’t fight him when he wrapped an arm around his shoulders. He did start to feel warmer as Lore pulled him close and rubbed his arms to help with his circulation. 

“I can see your mother’s face now,” Lore added with a lopsided grin. “Man would she be pissed if she could see what a mess you are.”

Wesley perked up a little at his comment. Either he was admitting that he was going to let him go home with Lal, or he was trying out some new form of psychological torture.

“Don’t get excited I was just rambling,” Lore added as though he could hear his thoughts. “I still need that information. There’s just no sense in letting you get sick again.”

Wesley knew he was running out of options. So he took a page out of Lal’s strategy book and decided to try showing this monster some affection. He turned his body further towards the android and wrapped his arms around him. If he hadn’t been so cold he might have tried to reach for the switch in his back, but there was no way he would make it back down the hill in this storm. Hugging him was his last chance at survival.

Lore pretended it wasn’t a show of gratitude and the boy was only trying to make the most contact to stay as warm as possible. After all, how could Wesley be hugging him? He had brought him nothing but fear and pain.

Then Lore realized that maybe this was what Lal saw in him, this sickening capacity for compassion and forgiveness. It made him hate himself a little for reciprocating. Because he was reciprocating. He was holding Wesley almost as much as the boy was holding onto him. As Lore looked down at the top of his head another thought occurred to him. Maybe he didn’t have to trade him; maybe would keep them both and find a way make things better between them.

.....

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading and for the kudos. I hope everyone is enjoying the story so far :)


	9. The Captor Becomes the Captive

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Pel and Ashara have rescued Lal and Wesley. At least it seems that way at first.

Lal needed help to pry open the cabin door, her injured arm handicapping her ability to get enough leverage. Pel was more than happy to lend a hand and together they opened the heavy door.

It was dark inside. Ashara and Pel both had their weapons at the ready. Their scans had picked up Wesley’s human vital signs, but it was more difficult to distinguish whether or not Lore was still with him. So they assumed that he was. They just weren’t expecting to find him spooning the boy.

“Well this is weird,” commented Pel as she approached them.

“Shut up, Doc, he was cold,” grumbled Lore as he sat up. 

Wesley, who had been asleep, woke from the commotion. He instinctively kept close to Lore since the room itself was still cold.

Lal didn’t wait for anyone to tell her it was okay for her to approach them. She ran over to her boyfriend and threw her arms around him. 

Pel rolled her eyes and moved her weapon so that it wouldn’t accidentally go off and hit the headstrong girl. Ashara holstered her phaser and closed the door to keep out the storm.

“We brought blankets and food,” said Ashara as she dug around in the large bag they had brought in with them. She produced a lamp and activated it so the room wasn’t quite so dark. Then she brought out a small heater and turned it on.

Lore imagined that it was Lal who carried all their supplies like a pack animal. He pushed down his disgust as he reached a hand out and touched the girl’s hair. 

Lal turned towards him and knocked his hand away. “I still hate you,” she muttered as she moved away from him. “You are reckless and selfish.”

“Lal, stop,” Wesley whispered. “It’s okay.”

“No it is not,” she told him harshly. Then she realized that the collar was gone from his neck. She traced the bruising and marks left on his skin from the cold. “You removed the collar?” she asked as she turned back to her uncle. “Why?”

“You were right, it was hurting him. Besides, he doesn’t need it now. I’m not going to...send him away,” Lore told her with a touch of shame. He made sure not to confess to selling the boy now that his two neighbours were glaring at him; not to mention holding a phaser on him. 

Wesley wasn’t sure if he believed him. Even after they had shown each other some kindnesses the android had been adamant that he had no intention of breaking his deal. Not that it mattered, not now that Pel and Ashara has come to their rescue.

“What happened to your arm?” Lore asked after noticing that Lal’s left arm was being held in a sling.

“You know what happened,” Lal snapped back.

Lore gave it some thought and remembered that he had left the arm band on her. “Fuck, I’m sorry, Lal,” he said sincerely. Then he looked over at the two women. “I presume that Lal has filled you in about who they really are and told you what a monster I am.”

“Yeah, pretty much,” commented Pel as she continued to keep her eye on him. “Kidnapping your niece is kind of fucked up, Cain.”

“To be fair, it was a spur of the moment decision. I actually didn’t know she existed before,” he said defensively. He could tell right away that he wasn’t helping his case so he stopped talking.

“Wes, you must be starving. Why don’t you come and join the sane people and have something to eat,” said Ashara as she gestured for him and Lal to come to their side of the room.

Lal helped him to stand and they walked the short distance over to the half collapsed table.   
Ashara put a knit hat on Wesley’s head and a warm blanket over his shoulders. Then she handed him a canteen filled with hot soup.

Lore watched the women make a fuss over the boy and thought it was fitting that he was alone again. Discarded and unwanted.

“Did he do anything to you, kid?” whispered Pel. “He didn’t touch you, or anything?”

“No, of course not,” Wesley answered without hesitation, his voice stronger than before. “Lore was actually trying to help me.”

“Don’t worry about it, Wes. They probably won’t believe you,” said Lore from the floor. “I look like a man and I live all by myself, so I must be some sort of pervert.”

“He isn’t. In fact I’m pretty sure that humans repel him,” Wesley said with conviction.

“So now what? You four are just going to leer at me until the storm lets up?” asked Lore sardonically. “That could be days.”

“We brought a sled,” Pel informed him. “Once Richie...I mean Wesley is seen to and the storm clears enough, we’ll go back down and back to our place until their families can come and retrieve them.”

“And me?” Lore added sharply.

“It would probably best if we deactivate you, Uncle. You are a menace,” said Lal with pity.

“No...no Lal, please don’t,” Lore pleaded as he stood and took a few steps towards her. He noticed Pel retrain her weapon on him and he put his hands up as though to convey he meant no harm. “Lal, I was taken apart and forgotten for over twenty years. Please don’t turn me off.”

Wesley could hear the raw emotion in the android’s voice and he took his girlfriend by the hand. “Lal, he’s right. It isn’t the humane thing to do. Can’t we find a way to restrain him?”

Lal gave him a look. She couldn’t comprehend why he was being so lenient after everything that Lore had done to him.

“Wesley, he is a murderer and a criminal,” she said plainly. “He stole us from our families and was about to send you away to who knows where. I love you, but I cannot allow him the chance to hurt anyone else. If my father chooses to reactivate him once we are rescued that will be his decision.”

“You should listen to her, Wes,” interjected Ashara feeling the need to stand behind the girl. “I’ve dealt with a lot of people who believed they were justified in the horrors they committed. Lore may never repent for his crimes and not taking action now, while we can, is foolish.”

“Then why not turn up your weapons to maximum and shoot him?” Wesley responded with disgust. “Why not destroy him outright?”

“Kid, you’re tired and beaten down. We get it. So let us grown-ups handle this,” commented Pel.

Lal was done listening to them argue. She slowly approached her uncle and gave him an expectant look. With his hands still in the air Lore turned around sat on the floor.

“I am sorry, Uncle Lore. I wish we could have been a proper family,” she said with regret.

“Me too,” he whispered over his shoulder. “If you ever happen to meet Dr. Noonien Soong tell him he was wrong. I wasn’t bad until he believed that I was.”

Lal kissed the top of head before reaching down for the switch in his back. Lore folded his hands in his lap and bowed his head in preparation. Then Lal clicked his controls and sent him into darkness.

......

The next time Lore regained awareness he was on the floor in a very small room. Although it was dark, he could tell that Wesley was straddling his lap with look of concern on his very tired, very chapped face. For a moment he thought he could be dreaming, but then he remembered that he couldn’t dream if he was deactivated.

“Lore, can you hear me?” the boy whispered.

The android nodded and tried to looked around, but there was literally nothing to see. It was as though they were in a closet. Other than Wesley, who was basically sitting on top of him, there were only walls and a light peeking through a crack in the door.

“Where’s Lal? What’s going on?” Lore asked as quietly as he could.

“Pel is making Lal send a message out to try and reach the Enterprise. Tasha doesn’t want to reveal herself, but they needed to give it more authenticity, you know?” Wesley told him.

Lore just stared up at him in disbelief. “Why did you reactivate me?” he inquired with suspicion. 

“I was getting to that,” the boy muttered. “Lal overheard the women talking. Pel plans to surrender you to the Romulan Empire to gain their freedom. Apparently they both have warrants out for their lives and you’re a perfect bargaining chip. If this is true, we can’t be certain that they will actually try to contact the Enterprise like they told us they would.”

“That’s absurd,” Lore scoffed. “Even if the Romulan authorities respond they could easily kill them and take me.”

“Yeah, well I couldn’t believe Tasha would agree to something so underhanded.”

“She isn’t your Tasha, kid; she’s Ashara now, remember?” Lore told him a frown. Then the android nudged the boy to try and get him move off of him a little. Their physical contact was starting to become a distraction. “Must you sit on me?”

“Sorry, am I too heavy?” teased the boy with a cheeky half grin.

“No, but you’re giving me claustrophobia,” he whined in response. The truth was that he was beginning to want to do something that he could never take back and now was the worst possible time for him act impulsively.

“Oh, right.”

Wesley sat back on his heels so that he was over Lore’s legs rather than his groin. 

“Did you manage to get a weapon?” Lore asked with interest.

“I stole the one you discarded in the bunker,” he said as he turned to retrieve the small phaser from where it was tucked into his waist.

The android was startled by how easily the boy handed it over to him. Either Wesley had lost his senses or he was betting on Lore to be the lesser of two evils.

“You know this might be the end for you if it goes badly, right?” Lore noted after a moment.

“Funny, I was thinking the same about you,” Wesley replied without missing a beat.

“Well, let’s make sure that doesn’t happen or those two bitches will be handing Lal over to their government.”

“I’ll go back out and assess the situation,” began Wesley. He paused when he heard the android laugh. “What?”

“You sound like a child playing at being a soldier...it was funny,” Lore replied with a half shrug.

Wesley rolled his eyes and ignored the android’s comment. “As I was saying, I’ll assess the situation and then find a way to signal you when you should make yourself known, or whatever,” the boy finished.

Lore clasped a hand on his arm to hold him back. “Why don’t we decide on a word to act as a signal?”

“Fine...when I say ‘jail’ you come out with your phaser ready,” he offered.

The android didn’t release his grip. “Why jail?”

“‘Cause I can work it into the discussion. Like I could say how they belong in jail, or you belong in jail.”

“Sounds too conversational. What if someone says the word and isn’t the right time?”

“Lore, I’m going to say it,” Wesley noted with annoyance. “Don’t come out if someone else says it.”

“Maybe I should just count to a hundred and come out,” added the android.

“What if one them is too close to Lal? We don’t want her to get taken as a hostage, or worse, shot in any crossfire,” explained the boy.

Lore considered this for a moment. He had to agree that Wesley had a point. “Fine, but say ‘prison’ not ‘jail’. This isn’t the ancient west.”

Wesley was beginning to have doubts about his plan. He was also reconsidering how he was ever so frightened of this bumbling moron he was entrusting to save them from whatever scheme their adversaries were planning. He wasn’t scary at all right now and he really needed him to be.

“Lore, focus for fuck’s sake!” Wesley hissed through his teeth. 

“I am, I am,” retorted Lore in all seriousness. “If anyone is going to decide my Beloved’s fate, it’s me.”

The boy didn’t know what to make of that last statement, but he was running out of time and running on fumes. Someone was bound to notice that he was missing by now.

“‘Prison’, Lore,” he said firmly as he carefully opened the door and left, closing it again behind him.

.......

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This one was a little lighter. The next one is not so pleasant. I hope Lore is not too out of character, now that his seething rage has subsided he’s more the unpredictable charmer.


	10. Not According to Plan

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Things go off the rails. Not that they were ever on the rails to begin with.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warnings for violence, drugging, attempt at rape, minor character death.

Lore pressed himself up against the inside of the door. He could hear Wesley walk into an adjacent room. 

“Were you able to get the signal strong enough to send through the electrical storm?” asked Wesley as he came to sit beside Lal.

“Not yet. Too much interference,” replied Ashara. “Where were you just now?”

“Sorry. Don’t be angry,” he said bashfully. “I’m a little paranoid about Lore suddenly coming back online. I wanted to be sure he was still off.”

Pel and Ashara exchanged a look. Lal smiled weakly and rested her head on her boyfriend’s shoulder. 

“Do not worry, Wesley. Lore will not reactivate without outside intervention,” Lal said reassuringly.

“You don’t know how to turn him off and on, do you kid?” wondered Pel as she gave her partner another side glance.

“No. I’ve never had any reason to be instructed how to,” he bluffed. “It’s actually something I’ve been worried about. I mean about Lal. If she were to go offline I wouldn’t know how to reactivate her.”

“I had not considered this concern,” said Lal softly. “I will explain it sometime soon.”

“You don’t function the same as your father?” This time it was who Ashara was curious.

“Not exactly,” Lal informed her. “Are you aware of how to activate my uncle?”

“Let’s just say that in my timeline Data and I shared many secrets and that was one of them,” said the woman who was once Tasha Yar.

Both Wesley and Lal seemed a little surprised by the admission.

“Maybe Lal could help Ashara to boost the signal,” Pel suggested all of a sudden. “The external hub may be burned in snow. Lal is the least susceptible to the cold.”

“But her arm,” Wesley began to say as his girlfriend cut him off.

“It will be fine. I do not want you to go outside again in this weather if it can be helped.”

“Besides while we’re out there, the doctor can finally see to Wes’ wounds,” suggested Ashara.

Wesley didn’t like the idea of them being separated, especially now that Lore was online. However, it seemed as though he was out-voted and had no choice. So Lal followed the blond woman outside and Wesley went with Dr. Pel into the room where the storage closet was that held Lore. Luckily, she had her medical bag already and wouldn’t discover Lore waiting to pounce.

The Romulan had the boy sit on the edge of the bed. She took out a hypospray and held it by his neck. He instinctively moved away from it.

“Relax,” said Pel with a grin. “This will help with the healing process.”

Wesley hadn’t had the privilege of seeing what state his face was in, but the tips of his ears were numb and his hands were blistered in places. Reluctantly he allowed her to proceed. At least he had the reassurance of Lore being close by if he needed him.

Pel ran a medical device over Wesley’s hands. It slowly began to reveal healthier, unaffected skin underneath the damaged red and swollen layers. He had to admit to himself that it was a relief to be in less pain. In fact, he noticed that couldn’t feel any pain, or anything much at all. 

The boy fell back onto the mattress. He was staring at the ceiling and wondering what the heck the doctor had given him when he heard a rustling sound. Before he could react—not that he could physically defend himself anymore—Pel was bent over him and snapping the cold metal collar back around his neck. She must have retrieved it when everyone was distracted by Lore.

“What?” was all Wesley managed to say before she tapped the buttons. The pins entered his flesh and his voice was muted beyond his control. Then he felt a third pin.

“Hush, relax,” whispered Pel in a soothing manner. “I don’t know if that android told you or not, but this collar has several useful features.”

Wesley wanted to believe that she meant it had a medical use, but as his brain continued to fog over he could feel a physiological change in his body. He lay there drugged, mute and helpless as the woman began to undo his trousers. Even though his brain was barely conscious, his body didn’t seem to care. His traitorous cock was fully engorged and demanding attention.

“You how old? Seventeen? Eighteen?” Pel asked as though reassuring herself that she wasn’t about to defile a child. “Don’t worry, you won’t remember this. It will be some kind of fevered dream.”

Pel moved off of him momentarily so that she could remove just enough clothing. “You know Ashara didn’t send any message, right? We would have a fleet of Romulan ships on us if we sent a signal out to Federation space,” she explained bluntly as she finished pulling off her underwear. 

Wesley’s mind was trying to catch up with what she was saying, but was instantly lost in sea of sensation the moment she touched him. Pel was over him again, straddling him. He could feel the heat of her body make contact. As she was about to take him inside of her, a phaser blast hit her firmly in the chest and knocking her to the floor.

“You know you could go to ‘prison’ for raping a minor,” Lore snarked as he stood over her prone form. “Sorry, I was itching to use our safe word. You know since you didn’t,” he said, turning to Wesley as though waiting to be praised for being so witty. Then he regarded the confused, disoriented, half nude boy and raised an eyebrow. “Unless you wanted to get raped?”

The phaser blast was enough to bring out a fight response in Wesley. His hazy brain instinctively pumping adrenaline through his body. He was clearly freaking out as he tried to claw at the collar that was continuing to cause his involuntary arousal. Finally, Lore seemed to get a clue and he threw a blanket over the boy’s exposed lower half so that he get closer to remove the collar.

As Lore released the collar from Wesley’s neck, he began to flail and hit Lore as hard as he could. The android was quickly losing patience. If the frail human didn’t calm down he was going to hurt himself. 

So Lore took both of Wesley’s arms and held them down at his sides, against the bed. Then he leaned in close to the boy’s face to make sure he had a chance of understanding him despite his current drugged state.

“Stop fighting me. I didn’t do this to you,” he said sternly. “I may be many things, but I’m not a rapist.”

It took a few moments for Wesley to stop fighting against him. Unfortunately, his erection didn’t get the message that the violation was over. Lore did his best to keep his cool when Wesley shameless thrust up and rubbed himself into his thigh.

Lore would have said something hurtful, but the look in the Wesley’s eyes told him that the boy was already feeling a world of shame.

“Don’t worry. It’s the same affect as the drug that took your voice. It will pass in a few minutes if it isn’t continuously being injected into your bloodstream.”

It was already too late. Wesley lost control and tears spilled down his flushed cheeks onto the bedspread as he came hard. Thankfully, Lore had covered him and he expelled into the blanket instead of onto the android’s leg.

“It’s fine. Better me and this blanket than that psycho bitch,” Lore said quietly as continued hold him down while his body finished convulsing. 

What Lore was really wondering was whether Pel was looking for a quick lay, or if she was actually trying to breed with the human. It was a valid theory, two women living isolation, maybe wanting a family of their own. That didn’t mean that they had any right to do what Pel was trying to do. It just gave them motive. They were certainly full of surprises.

“What are you doing!?” exclaimed Ashara from the doorway. “Lore you’re supposed to be turned off!”

The android cursed himself for being too distracted to noticed her come in behind him. Then she picked up his phaser from where he had dropped and pointed it at him.

“I didn’t attack him—Pel did,” Lore said defensively as he put his hands up and moved away from the bed.

Ashara allowed herself a quick glance at Pel lying on the floor and couldn’t deny that she was half naked. Then she locked her eyes on Lore, as she moved next to Wesley. The boy was doing his best to calm down, but he had yet to regain his voice and couldn’t corroborate Lore’s story. The blond woman gently helped him to sit up. It was when he swayed, unable to fully stabilize himself, that she noticed the blanket that was covering him, a blanket that kept the two from making contact.

“You alright?” Ashara asked softly as she gently touched his face with her free hand. The boy shook his head and swallowed hard. 

“I’m going to help you get dressed, okay?” she said as she unabashedly began assisting him with redressing. As a victim of sexual assault herself, she knew the best thing to do was get him decent and reassure him that he was safe.

Wesley finally nodded weakly as a few more tears stung his still chapped cheeks. Lore noted that the doctor hadn’t even had the decency to finish healing the boy before she climbed on top of him. At least his hands had improved.

Something in Lore wanted to continue to attend to the boy himself. If they hadn’t been interrupted, he would be the one helping him. He didn’t know why it bothered him so much that he had been denied the chance. He supposed it was a simple matter of possession. Wesley was his.

“I take it you didn’t know what your partner was up to,” Lore commented as he slowly put his hands down.

Ashara eye’s flashed with distain. “Of course I didn’t; but why should I believe anything you say?”

“Lore saved me, Ashara,” Wesley said in a broken whisper. By now she was examining the fresh bruises on his neck from where the collar had been reapplied. “I’m sorry, but Pel really did attack me.” His voice was coming back even though his mind was still foggy.

“Is she dead?” Ashara asked quietly without turning to look at the woman lying on the floor, half undressed. 

“She might be,” Lore said as he observed the doctor and knocked her arm with one of his feet. “I honestly don’t know. I heard her asking Wes about his age and I know how he likes to chat about himself. So when he didn’t answer I put two and two together and looked out of the closet. I was a little shocked to find her on top of him. I shot her without checking the setting on the phaser.”

“What was the setting before?” inquired Ashara as she made eye contact with the android.

Lore didn’t answer. He knew he had set it fairly high in order to heat up the bulkhead. He also knew that he hadn’t turned it back down. He presumed that Wesley had adjusted it before handing it back, but maybe he was wrong. The woman hadn’t been dissolved into particles, so there was a chance that she wasn’t dead. 

The woman moved beside her partner and felt for a pulse. It was faint, but she had one. She checked the setting in the phaser herself and frowned. 

“It’s set to kill, Lore,” she said harshly. “Did she really try to rape you, Wes?”

“Yes, she did,” he answered sombrely.

Ashara closed her eyes and let out a heavy sigh. Then she re-opened them and adjusted the setting. She shot the phaser at Pel and woman dissolved into nothing. 

“Was that necessary?” asked Lore in disbelief.

“She needed serious medical attention if she was going to recover...and I’m not sure she deserved to recovered,” admitted Ashara. She gave him a tortured looked that seemed to convey the anguish she was experiencing. “I trusted her.”

“Remind me not to cross you,” Lore said quite seriously.

“Ashara?” called Lal from the other room. “Wesley?”

Wesley had almost forgotten her in his dazed funk. He ran into the other room and took his girlfriend in his arms. Then he kissed her without considering what Lore might do to him.

“Wesley, your lips are still chapped,” she said with concern.

When Ashara and Lore came out and joined them a moment later, Lal looked quite surprised to see her uncle, almost as though she hadn’t been in on their plan. Then Lore realized that the look of surprise was warranted because there was a large man standing behind his niece and he had laser gun pointed at them. Wesley instinctively put his hands up when his brain finally caught up to the situation.

“Glyph,” Lore said with a nod.

“Lore,” the large man retorted with a frown. “I would put your phaser down if I were you,” he added as he trained his aim on Ashara.

“We’re all friends here,” Lore said with ease. “No need for violence.” 

Then Lore placed a hand on Ashara’s hand and took the phaser from her. He proceeded to tuck it into the back of his waist band. She must have been thrown off guard because she let him take her weapon without so much as a word of protest.

Glyph didn’t holster his gun just yet. He pointed at Wesley with it and grunted. “That the boy?”

Lore moved a little closer and tried to get between the two youths and his business associate. “I know you came all this way and believe me, I hate to call off a deal last minute. But circumstances have changed. I’ll compensate you for the inconvenience.”

Wesley was still fighting against the sedative that Pel had given him. He couldn’t quite tell what species this Glyph person was. All he could tell was that he was built like a Klingon quarterback and looked quite menacing.

“What about this fair haired woman? She looks old, but may still have several serviceable years left in her,” suggested Glyph.

“No, not her either,” muttered Wesley boldly. 

Ashara, Lal and Lore gave him a look as if to question his sanity. True he was pretty doped up, but Wesley knew that if this Tasha was hiding on the edge of the Neutral Zone she had surely suffered enough already.

“You gonna let that insect answer for you, Lore?” came Glyph’s snide response.

“The boy is nuts, but I have to agree. She’s no good to you. I’ve sampled her and she is severely lacking in anything your clientele might desire,” Lore rambled. 

“Hey,” blurted Ashara without thinking.

“And don’t even look at the girl; she’s mine and she isn’t negotiable,” added Lore ignoring the woman’s outburst.

Lal wasn’t sure if her uncle was telling the truth about Ashara or not. It probably didn’t matter. It did strike her as odd that he would be so quick to distract from a person he had no attachment to. That was when she noticed that Pel was missing.

Glyph smiled in an eerily disconcerting way, revealing very sharp, gagged teeth beneath his full lips. “I suppose it doesn’t matter. I wasn’t able to tell you before, but I couldn’t get what you wanted. I only found information on a woman who used to have the same name,” he said vaguely.

Lal noted the instant change in her uncle’s expression. No longer did he look so nonchalant. Now he appeared to be agitated. 

“Woman? What woman?” Lore and Ashara questioned in unison.

“No payment...no intel,” said Glyph frankly. “I’ll expect a transfer of credit within twenty-four hours for compensation. As a show of good faith I won’t even take one of your little play things as assurance.”

Wesley could feel his stomach drop to the floor as Lore glanced over at him with a look of desperation. The boy could see the need in his golden eyes and he could tell that Lore was seriously reconsidering handing him over. He couldn’t begin to imagine what information could possibly be so important, or who this woman was that the android was searching for.

Ashara seemed to get the same feeling. She dared to touch Lore’s arm and shoot him a look. “Don’t,” she growled under her breath.

With his business—or lack there of—complete, Glyph turned to make his exit. Lore was practically vibrating as he held himself back from impulsively throwing Wesley back into harm’s way.

“Please, Uncle,” Lal whispered as she too could tell he was changing his mind. “Do not do it.”

It was too late. Lore went after the large man. Glyph stopped outside and faced the android. “Change your mind?” he asked as his feet crunched in the snow.

“No...I mean, you didn’t even find the information I asked for. I shouldn’t have to compensate you for anything,” Lore said firmly. “But I will still transfer the credits if you send me what you did find.”

Glyph seemed to consider his proposal for a moment. Ashara was standing behind Lore, ready to grab at the phaser still secured in his waste band.

Lal and Wesley hung back inside the main doorway and watched in silence, ready to run at any moment of things went south.

“Fine. It isn’t much,” the man conceded gruffly. “I could do with the credits more than a scrawny adolescent I would still need to sell. It’s a deal.”

“I’ll go home and make the transfer now,” Lore told him with a smirk.

“Word of advice. Take better care of your chattel if you wish to sell it later. Those two look disastrous,” Glyph added with a shake of his head. Then he activated his transporter and was gone.

Lore turned around with a self-satisfied smile on his face. Though it quickly faded as he gave the boy and his niece a once over, realizing that the man had been right. Lal’s hair was a mess, her jumper was torn and she was still sporting a useless arm. Wesley looked worse than when he had first abducted him—which was saying something—his skin marred and his cheeks hallow. 

“Fuck, you two are disastrous,” he huffed with annoyance.

“No thanks to you,” scoffed Ashara.

Then as if to make Lore’s day complete, Wesley fainted and fell onto the freshly fallen snow. Lal did her best to try and catch him, but with only one functional arm she miscalculated and lost her grip.

“Yep, that’s not good,” Lore muttered as he walked back towards his niece.

Little did he know the other shoe had yet to drop. As the group tried to lift the boy from the ground they were suddenly surrounded by shimmering light.

......


	11. Not Safe, Not Sound

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> There’s a lot of yelling and blame going on.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warnings for discussing the unsavoury events of the previous chapter. Also, more swearing than usual.

Wesley woke briefly some time later. He was sure that Lal was crying and that they were back in space. He felt worse than he had earlier, which probably meant that the sedative was wearing off and something else was wrong with him. Either that or everything had been a fevered dream. The strange structure, the Romulan doctor, the climb up the steep hillside in the snow storm, all of it. Maybe he was still ill from being poisoned in the first place. By now anything was possible.

“This is all your fault!” exclaimed Ashara.

“My fault!? Do you think I wanted this to happen?” Lore snapped defensively.

“You broke the deal...Hell, you called that goon in the first place!”

“If it weren’t for you and your perverted partner I wouldn’t have been distracted by how fucking sick that kid is—again!”

“You’re a real piece of work! You kidnapped and tortured that boy for days—not to mention how you dragged him up a mountain in a damned blizzard—and now you’re blaming Pel for one mistake!?”

“How can you defend her!? You’re telling me that she just happened to have that psychotropic drug in her medical bag? How many times did she drug you and do things you couldn’t remember!?”

“Shut up! You have no idea what you’re talking about!”

“Fuck you, Asha! And fuck your misplaced sense of righteousness!”

“Stop it!” yelled Lal. “You both need to stop screaming at each other!”

The two ‘adults’ fell silent and turned to look at the younger android. She was glaring daggers at them. 

The four of them were situated in a dimly lit, makeshift jail. They were lined up, separated by evenly spaced bars. Whatever they were made from it was something even Lore couldn’t bend. The cells were not very tall, so they were all sitting on the floor; except for Wesley. He was lying down, only semi-aware of what was happening.

“She started it,” grumbled Lore as he crossed his arms over his chest with defiance.

“I don’t care,” Lal said crossly as she shifted closer to her boyfriend and reached her working hand through the bars to feel his forehead. The boy was shivering and drenched in sweat. “Wesley is sick and has a fever. You need to ask your friend to help him.”

Her uncle caught her contraction, but chose to overlook it. “Lal, beloved, when a man abducts you against your will, he isn’t your friend anymore,” he explained as though she were simple minded.

“Lore, she has a point,” Ashara said with annoyance. “They took him along with the rest of us for a reason and he needs help.”

“Maybe he isn’t sick, exactly. There’s a drug used by the Romulan military that immobilizes the body while you can still feel the pain they inflict on you,” rambled Lore in response. He could already tell that Ashara was uncomfortable and probably knew exactly what he was talking about. “Humans don’t metabolize it very well. He’s probably just reacting to whatever that bitch shot into his bloodstream.”

“Ashara, is that possible?” inquired Lal. She had gathered from their argument that Dr. Pel was dead, although she wasn’t sure that the punishment fit the crime. It was true that she was disillusioned that someone would use their position as a healer to do something so despicable to someone she loved, but death was so final.

The middle-aged blond heaved a heavy a sigh and shook her head. “Yeah, Lal. It’s possible. That doesn’t mean that he doesn’t need attention.”

Just then a guard entered the room, as though someone had been listening in on their exchange. It was not Glyph, but another male of the same species whom Lore didn’t seem to know. He wordlessly went over to the last cell where Wesley lying semi-unconscious. He unlocked it and picked him up.

“Please help him,” pleaded Lal. The guard grunted, but didn’t answer. Then he was gone.

Lore closed his eyes. He couldn’t take the heartbroken look on his niece’s face. He hated that she was so upset and that it was once again his fault. He really had been planning to take her home, even if that meant he would never see her again. Now she would be lucky not to become someone’s plaything, or worse, sold to someone who would take her apart.

“Lore?” 

Ashara whispered his name, but he kept his eyes closed. She had seen enough prisoners in her life to recognize that the reality of their situation was beginning to effect him. She needed to bring back the fight in him. “Lore, maybe if you can’t get through the bars you can knock through the ceiling, or the wall?”

Lal began emptying her pockets of all the things she had collected from her uncle’s home. She called Ashara’s attention by motioning her hand just in case someone was listening. The woman gave her a look of confusion before she began rummaging through her assortment of odds and ends.

When the woman found something useful she crawled back over to Lore’s side of her cage and nudged him. When he still refused to acknowledge her, she dared to place her hand over his. He snatched it away violently as if she were on fire.

“What?” he blurted with offence.

Ashara put a finger to her lips and held out her other hand. She opened it so that he could see what she had. Lore stared at her palm and realized that she a very old battery cell. He knew as well as she did that it’s contents were highly corrosive. Unfortunately, they would need several more if they had any hope of getting through the thick bars with it.

So he shrugged dramatically at her. Ashara rolled her blue eyes and crawled away. When she came back over she had a handful of batteries and a few fuses. Lore smirked at her and cocked an eyebrow.

After some effort, Lore was able to reach around and apply the inner fluid to the keyhole of his cell. He figured that would be the most vulnerable place to try. After nearly burning off one of his finger tips, he was able to wearing the lock enough to use his strength to pry open his door. It was a good thing these aliens were so ‘old school’ with their holding cells.

A few minutes later he had the other two doors open and he helped Lal since her one arm was still in a sling. There was just one last problem. They needed to get through the main door. It was more modern than the cells.

Lore pressed against it as though to test if it had any give. It shifted just a fraction and he hoped it would be enough. But before he could try with his full strength, Ashara put hand on his shoulder to stop him. She pointed at the panel next to the door. So Lore ripped away the cover and slammed his fist into it. He felt a minor jolt as the inner workings shorted out. Now it would be easy to slide the door...well easy for someone with his strength.

Once the door was forced open the three of them entered a dark hallway. A few feet later was another door. This time it was Lal who tapped the control beside the door to see if it would open. Much to their surprise, it did. Even more surprising was the sight that greeted them on the other side of the door.

It was like crossing through a portal. Where they had just come from was dark and archaic. Now they were standing on what looked to be a luxury cruise ship. Everything was sleek, shiny and pristine.

“What. The. Actual. Fuck?” Lore blurted as he looked around them. A couple passed them and made distasteful faces as they regarded their less than stellar appearances. 

Ashara grabbed him by the arm and yanked him back inside the doorway.

“Great, that’s one way to get noticed; stand in the middle of a corridor and swear loudly,” she chided. She was pacing and trying to assess the situation. The problem was that she had no more information than Lore did. 

“Did your business associate ever give you any indication that he worked for someone else?” she asked after coming up empty.

“Who? Glyph? No,” he babbled as he watched her moved across the small space and back again. “It’s not like we were pen pals. We talked business and nothing else.”

“What was the information you were attempting to get from him, uncle?” inquired Lal.

“That’s irrelevant now,” said Lore dismissively.

Ashara could tell by the way he was squirming that it may not be so irrelevant. She stopped pacing and stood in front of him. “Tell her, Lore. It might mean something.”

“It means nothing. This fancy cruiser has nothing to do with some scrap of information he was supposed to give me...which he didn’t, by the way.”

“Uncle Lore, stop being so difficult. You are trapped the same as we are. We must work together,” Lal told him.

“I can’t believe she still calls you ‘uncle’ after you nearly sold her boyfriend for some piece of crap information,” muttered Ashara with annoyance.

Lore didn’t appreciate her tone, but he knew that Lal was right. An act violence now wouldn’t solve anything. Besides he could use the human woman later if they got into trouble.

“I’m looking for my creator, Dr. Soong,” he said at last. “Glyph didn’t find anything so it doesn’t matter.”

“He found something,” added Lal, “about a woman with the same name. Is she a Soong?”

Ashara’s eyes widened as she turned on Lore. “You piece of shit! Why does it even matter anymore? Even if he isn’t dead he would be very old and of no use to you!” 

Lore cowered as the blond hit him repeatedly in the chest. Not that a human could hurt him, but for some reason she scared him a little.

“Quit it,” he cried. “I changed my mind. I was going to take the both of them home when you and Pel took it upon yourselves to ‘rescue’ them. And I know you were planning to hand me over to the Romulans so don’t expect any gratitude from me.”

“I didn’t want to, that was Pel’s idea,” Ashara clarified as she stepped back. “Poor dead Pel.”

“You know, that’s the first time you’ve shown any sign you actually cared that she was dead,” said Lore with interest.

“What can I say? She was a very good doctor, but a terrible person,” Ashara noted with a sigh.

“I thought you two were lovers...I mean, I also believed she was holding you under duress, but I thought it was some sort of Stockholm Syndrome thing,” Lore rambled.

“Ew, no,” she rebutted with disgust. “We were mutual friends. More like war refugees really. We were not romantically, or sexually involved.”

“You do not find Romulans to be fit mates?” Lal asked for some reason.

“No, kid. I spent enough years being tortured, tormented and enslaved by them to never want another one to touch me again, even with affection,” explained Ashara.

“That explains why Pel attacked the boy,” added Lore, mostly to himself.

Ashara hit him again and gestured to Lal as though to tell him not to talk about such things in front of her. “Nothing excuses any of this,” she told him. “And by the way you are far worse, in my books.”

“He did assist in the genocide of an entire colony,” Lal told her with a frown.

“Lal, come on. Even Wes didn’t believe that bullshit,” Lore said with seemingly hurt feelings.

Both women stared at him for a solid minute. 

“Are you revoking your notoriety as a mass-murder?” questioned Lal with a tilt of her head.

“Wow, your creator did a piss-poor job with you if you were so desperate to push people away that you let them believe such an evil and untrue thing,” Ashara commented with amazement. “You truly are a broken mess.”

“Fuck you,” he muttered as he pushed past her and through the door once again.

The human woman and the android girl looked at one another. They knew they had no other option other than to follow him. So they did, but stopped short when they caught sight of Lore being taken into custody by a guard.

......


	12. Two of a Kind

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> We meet the man behind their abduction. Lore and Ashara finally find common ground.

Ashara only hoped that this was all part of some scheme and Lore wasn’t really so reckless as to allow himself to get captured not five minutes after escaping. Especially, when moments later they were also surrounded by guards. Much to their surprise, all three of them were led away from where they had come from. 

They were taken to a large, decadent suite. There were plush couches and an oversized, elaborately carved desk. Even the wall coverings and carpeting seemed to reek of luxury. There was a well groomed man seated at the desk, wearing attractive attire. He looked up at them as they entered and grinned.

“I wasn’t sure if you would find a way out of your little cells, Lore,” he said casually. “Looks like you didn’t disappoint, after all.”

“Where are we and who are you?” demanded Ashara. She placed herself protectively between this strange man and Lal, her old security training kicking in.

“Welcome to my interstellar cruiser. The ‘Rosanna’ is top of the line. A far cry from that hovel you called a home. From our initial scans we know that you are one Tasha Yar of Starfleet, listed as killed in action—most curious since here you stand before me and in your mid-fifties. The boy in my infirmary is Wesley Crusher, son of prominent Starfleet medical officer Dr. Beverly Crusher; and this girl is not a girl at all, but an android—an android like you, Lore.” 

The man paused in his speech to ceremoniously stand to come around his desk. He perched on the edge as he continued to debrief them.

“We intercepted the bulletin from Starfleet; she and the boy were reported missing under suspicion of kidnapping. How is it, Lore, that you just happen to have three members of the USS Enterprise manifest with you?” 

“Boy, do you like the sound of your own voice,” snarked Lore.

“I’ve already had my people contact the children’s parents,” the man continued, ignoring the rude comment. “They were quite grateful, as you can imagine, to hear that we retrieved them in one piece. Well, save the girl’s arm and the boy’s health,” he noted with an exaggerated frown. “I did leave out the fact that we found Ms. Yar and yourself, Lore, with them.”

Lore began to realize that this man kept saying his name. He had said it several times now and each time he made sure they were making eye contact. It was starting to get on his nerves.

“You contacted Picard?” asked Lore skeptically. “And why would you do that?”

“You know, Lore, my father had business dealings with your creator, Dr. Soong. In fact, he was Soong’s only private investor as far as I know. The word ‘property’ has such negative connotations these days. Perhaps we could say that you should strongly consider yourself commissioned into my service. At least until certain depts are repaid.”

“I think I’d rather take my chances with Starfleet, thanks all the same,” Lore replied flatly.

“Fine, fine. If that’s your preference, I understand,” said the well-tailored man. “It’s just such a shame. Here I would employ you as a valued member of my team. Starfleet will most likely put you on trial. If you’re lucky you’ll be sent to a penal colony for the next thousand years. Otherwise, they might deactivate you and donate your android body to science.”

“Excuse me, sir?” asked Lal politely. “What is your name?”

The man smiled, genuinely smiled. He walked over to her as though Lore was not giving him a look that could kill and Ashara was not about to throw him to the ground if he so much as touched her. No, he had no visible worry as he stood directly in front of Lal and placed his hands on her shoulders.

“My dear girl, my name is Cornelius Mudd. My father was Harcourt Fenton Mudd,” he informed her with pride. “If there is anything I learned from my father it is that you don’t mess with the Federation, or Starfleet.”

“Ashara is not Starfleet,” Lore said abruptly. “She’s sort of a clone and not actually Tasha Yar...you know, like I look like Commander Data, but we’re not the same person at all.”

“What are you doing?” muttered Ashara under her breath.

“Saving your ass from rejoining a life you obviously don’t want,” he growled back.

Mudd looked back and forth between them and raised his brows with skepticism. “I thought you wanted me to hand you over to Starfleet, Lore? If that were true, why are you attempting to keep this Ashara woman away?”

“Maybe I was a little rash about settling on surrender,” he retorted with a half shrug. “If I stay...in your employ of course, she would be allowed to stay with me, yes?”

Now both Ashara and Lal were looking at the android as though he had suddenly grown a second head. 

Mudd missed nothing and smirked slyly at their interactions. “If she is your companion, I see no reason why I should not allow her to remain by your side,” he said with mischief. “I thought I sensed an attraction between the two of you. I would love to hear your story sometime.”

“Story?” Ashara found herself asking.

“Yes, of your love,” Mudd mused.

Lal was about to correct him when her uncle pulled her close and spoke loudly. “YES OF COURSE, WE WOULD LOVE TO TELL YOU!”

“Why are you shouting?” Lal inquired quietly, “Is there something wrong with your aural input, or vocal processors?”

Lore laughed awkwardly. “Kids, they say the darnedest things,” he said in a more normal volume as he gave her shoulders a squeeze. “Hey, Mudd, now that we’re all better acquainted could we maybe have some proper accommodations?”

The man stroked his chin and considered the request for a few moments. “Yes, I suppose you should have proper quarters now. Glyph will show you to your rooms and take the girl to see her boy, if she would like.”

“Yes, please, very much,” said Lal without hesitation.

.....

“This is a mess,” grumbled Ashara as walked around the room.

It was spacious enough, except that she was meant to share it with Lore. It only had one bed, which she supposed was the least of her problems. Lore probably didn’t sleep anyways. No, her real concern was that she was caught in a lie to a very powerful, slightly insane man.

“Come on, it’s not that bad,” Lore said defensively. “At least the kids will go home and neither one of us has to face my brother.”

She had to admit that did sound like something she wasn’t ready to do. She did not want to see Data, even if he wasn’t ‘her Data’ it would still be beyond difficult.

“You have to tell that man that we’re not involved,” she said as she came closer to him again.

Lore wasn’t really paying her any attention. He was busy inspecting the personal computer system and was disappointed to find that there was a security wall keeping him from exploring most of what the ship had to offer in terms of information.

“Lore, are you listening to me?”

“He’ll lose interest soon enough, don’t worry about it,” he said dismissively as he turned back to face her.

He was surprised to find her standing so close to him and he gave her a questioning look when she leaned in and brushed her lips against his. Lore caught her shoulders and held her in place, millimetres from making contact.

“What are you doing?” he whispered with a quirk to his mouth.

Ashara mirrored his expression and arched an eyebrow. “If I’m going to pass as being your lover then you should at least look like you want me. Sexually that is,” she explained. 

Lore thought this over for what seemed longer than necessary. “Fine,” he huffed with reluctance and pulled her against him, kissing her passionately. At least that’s what he believed he was doing. The nonplused frown on her face said otherwise. 

“That was terrible,” she scoffed as she wiped her mouth with the back of her hand. “Are you sure you’re Data’s brother?”

The android’s face flashed with anger. “Bitch!”

She caught his arm before he could retreat. “Calm down, just try again...maybe let me show you how this time.”

Lore grumbled and cursed under his breath. It wasn’t his fault that he lacked proper programming. His cruel creator had stolen it from him and he hadn’t exactly made relearning romance and sexual acts his priority.

Then he heaved a sigh of exasperation before letting her do what she wanted. He kept his eyes open so that he could observe her properly. She tilted his head for him and then kissed him tenderly. He was fairly certain that she was doing exactly what he had until she ran her hand up his chest to rest on the back of his neck and deepened it. He suddenly felt as though she was consuming him and he was melting into her embrace.

As the blond pulled back, Lore let out a little whimper of complaint at the loss.

“See the difference, now?” she teased.

“Fine...maybe I do,” he conceded, slightly embarrassed by how much he wanted to do it again. He wondered if she had learnt to be so seductive during her enslavement, or if it was something she had always been good at.

“Look, Asha, you don’t have to touch me unless it’s absolutely necessary,” he added firmly.

“Excuse me?” she asked with offence.

“Pel told me about how you had escaped from being some Romulan Commander’s concubine,” he confided. “I just don’t want to make you to feel like an object.”

Ashara wasn’t quite sure what to make of his words. On the one hand it was very decent of him to want to reassure her. He may have had similar experiences himself...not as a sexual slave, but perhaps being treated like an object, or property. On the other hand she was a strong, independent woman who didn’t need him to save her and his assumptions pissed her off a little.

“That wasn’t her place to tell you that,” she huffed as she turned her back on him. “And forgive me if I don’t believe the pathological liar when he says that he feels badly about treating me like an object. You are the same psycho who mistreated a teenaged boy for days.”

“No, I impulsively harmed him once or twice and then got him the medical attention he needed,” he countered with growing irritation. “I was taking care of him!”

“So you could sell him,” she pointed out plainly.

“Now who’s not listening,” he hissed aggressively through gritted teeth. “I didn’t do it. I didn’t want to do it.”

“Why? Why would you suddenly change your mind and want to help Wesley? I could tell that you honestly wanted to keep him safe back when we were in that bunker on the mountain.”

He was momentarily thrown by the change in her demeanour. She ran so hot and cold, so quickly that she was beginning to remind of him of himself.

“I don’t know,” he confessed as he leaned against a wall and crossed his arms in front of his chest. “I guess I was starting to actually like the kid.”

“Why did you not like him?” she asked with curiosity. “Was it because Lal loves him?”

“That didn’t help,” he said as he regarded her. “The truth is that he was the only person to realize that I had taken my brother’s place back when I was first reactivated.”

“So you hate him for being clever?” It wasn’t exactly the answer she was expecting.

“That and he helped Data throw into the vacuum of space,” he added nonchalantly.

Her brows shot up in surprise. That was a better reason to resent someone. 

“How long ago was that? I presume your timeline is slightly different from mine.”

“Two and half years ago, give or take,” he told her with a sigh. “How was it you knew him, Asha? What was going on when you diverged from your timeline?” Now that they were talking, he was actually intrigued.

Ashara chose to overlook his use of her foreshortened name. It seemed to be his thing.

“Wesley was a cadet. In times of war cadets often jump right into service. He was one of the best and the brightest...you know—clever,” she said smartly.

“War?” he repeated. “Who were you at war with?”

“The Klingons, who else? In my timeline the war hadn’t ended. Once it was corrected and the war was ended I had the privilege of being taken prisoner by the Romulans.”

“Lucky you,” he said sardonically. 

What he really wanted to know now was what had her relationship been with his brother. In truth he had no idea the original Tasha was dead. He only guessed that she was not her because of how much older she was and how she avoided acknowledging who he was.

“In a way, I’m glad that Wesley gets to be a normal kid,” she added thoughtfully. When Lore made a face she corrected herself. “Well, normal for him. Life was hard and we never knew when the next battle would be, or if it would be our last.”

“Isn’t all of life like that for biological beings?” Lore quipped as he moved closer to her. “You are all so fragile.” There was something beneath his humour, something akin to tenderness.

“Careful, Lore,” she teased, “You almost sound like you give a shit.”

He couldn’t help but smile at her words. He was even tempted to kiss her then, but thought better of it. Ashara watched his eyes move from her own eyes to her mouth. When he failed to act on his instincts she helped him by grabbing the collar of his shirt and kissing him hard on the lips.

She was pleasantly surprised by how quickly he picked up what she liked and what she wanted from him. And she was a little surprised by herself and how much she wanted him to give it to her. When they parted, he was looking at her all too seriously and she desperately wanted to distract him.

“Why Cain? Evil twin joke?” she asked playfully.

He nodded slowly as he gently caressed her flushed cheek. “Why Ashara?” he whispered.

She couldn’t help but lean into his touch. The way he was looking into her made her feel something she hadn’t allowed herself to hope to feel in such a long time and she ached to continue their contact. 

“I had a kid sister named Ishara,” she confided, “and as you keep making very obvious ‘Asha’ is basically ‘Tasha’.”

“Then why not just be ‘Tasha’?” he questioned, leaning so close that their noses bumped.

“Because Natasha Yar is dead...and I don’t really want to be her anymore,” she said with sadness.

Just as she thought he would kiss her again, he pulled away. She watched him revert to his usual, detached self. She wasn’t sure if he had been playing her to get the information he wanted, or if he suddenly couldn’t cope with how intimate and vulnerable they were becoming. Either way, she could feel his invisible defences go up as strong as ever.

“I should go and check on Lal,” he announced soberly. “We can’t be too trusting.”

“That’s probably wise,” she said in agreement. “I did send out a message to Picard, by the way. I just have no possible way of knowing if he got it,” she added, not entirely sure why.

“Pel said you didn’t,” he rebutted sharply.

“Well, she lied. I sent it after I met Wesley outside your residence,” she assured.

“You were right, Pel was a terrible person,” he said with a frown. “For the first time I actually hope that your deception pays off. If Mudd is lying about contacting Picard, maybe your message will find him.”

.....

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Didn’t want to spoil anything, I will probably hold off on updating the tags until after I finish publishing this story. Couldn’t resist finding chemistry between Lore and alternate timeline Tasha. Also, I loved Harry Mudd in Discovery (and TOS) and felt he would do nicely. Of course being so many years into the future I had to settle for his son. Cheers!


	13. Losing Control

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lore is having a hard time, but somehow Ashara becomes the person he can count on.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warnings for violence, mild torture, tantrums, trauma, sexual references, mentions of rape and any other terrible thing that Lore might do. If I missed something important please let me know.

When Lore arrived in the Infirmary he was displeased to say the least. He was expecting to find Lal playing the dutiful girlfriend at Wesley’s bedside. Instead she was nowhere to be found and the boy was lying unconscious and unattended.

Ashara saw his eyes flash with anger and she flagged down a nurse before he could begin breaking things.

“Excuse me, but we’re here to see Wesley,” she told the young woman in hushed tones as she motioned towards the patient, “the young human male lying over on that biobed. Have you seen a young woman with dark hair and eyes visiting with him?”

The nurse nodded slowly as she kept a wary eye on Lore. He was standing over her with his chest puffed and shoulders squared, looking as threatening as ever. “Yeah, she was here, but Dr. Tainer took her away to see about the girl’s arm,” she explained.

“Why would a medical doctor think he could fix an android’s arm?” Lore inquired sharply.

The woman’s eyes widened a little and she took a half step away from him and his threatening energy. “Oh no, sir. Dr. Tainer isn’t a medical doctor. She’s a passenger and knows quite a bit about robotics and such,” she told him.

“I feel like maybe I should have been consulted first,” Lore growled at the nurse. 

Ashara placed a firm hand on his chest as though to ground him and possibly hold him back before he did anything stupid. It definitely got his attention, he looked down at her hand and then broodingly at her face, confused by the gesture. 

“Thank you, I presume she’ll return when she’s done with the doctor?” Ashara questioned evenly.

“Yes, I believe so,” said the nurse. “You’re welcome to visit with the young man, though I doubt he’ll wake anytime soon. He was given something to help him rest.”

Once the nurse went back to her duties, Ashara dared to look at Lore again. He was staring at her in a most peculiar way. “What?” she asked as she let her hand fall away.

“You are an enigma. Anyone else would have known better than to touch me for fear that I would crush their hand,” he said cruelly.

The blond rolled her eyes at him and walked over to the biobed. “I suspect you’re more bark than bite,” she tossed carelessly over her shoulder at him. 

The android sneered at her insinuation that he was harmless. Just because he gave into his curiosity and allowed her to kiss him didn’t mean that he felt any sort of loyalty to her. He stewed in his frustration while he observed her tenderly take the sleeping boy’s hand. 

“I wouldn’t test that theory if I were you,” he spat for good measure.

“I thought I just did,” she mused with upward quirk of her mouth.

“Don’t do it again,” he warned her as he came to stand at the foot of the bed.

Ashara glanced up at him and could see the concern on his brow. She wondered how anyone could be so exhaustively conflicted all the time. One minute wishing to destroy every last person in the universe and the very next desperate to do the right thing.

“He’ll be alright, you know,” she said softly. 

“Great, he’ll be back to defiling my niece in no time,” he replied sardonically. 

“What do you care? How is that any of your damned business?” she asked as though suddenly fed up with his bad attitude. “He loves her. Can’t you just let it go and let bygones be bygones?”

Lore didn’t retaliate as she expected. He clamped his mouth shut and stared at Wesley’s feet. It seemed that he didn’t want to be vulnerable, or an asshole anymore. Ashara almost pitied him—almost.

When Wesley finally opened his eyes he wasn’t sure why it was Ashara at his bedside and not Lal.

“What happened? Is Lal alright?” he murmured as he tried to sit up, but felt too unsteady and had to lie back down,

“Lal, is fine. Someone is seeing to her arm,” Ashara reassured him.

Wesley noticed Lore at the foot of his bed and wondered who she could be talking about. “Lore, are you okay?”

The android startled when he heard the boy say his name and his emotions program flared into automatic hatred mode. He had to remind himself that he didn’t actually hate Wesley anymore and it would be necessary to correct his subroutines.

“Yeah, whatever,” he muttered. Even if he didn’t hate him, Lore still couldn’t lower himself to accept the human’s sympathy. He just wasn’t ready yet.

Just then Lal entered the brightly lit space and greeted them with a cheerful smile.

“Look, Uncle, the Doctor has fixed my arm,” she declared as she showed off by lifting her left arm and flexing her hand and fingers. “Oh good, Wesley, you are awake,” she added warmly as she rushed over to her boyfriend and hugged with both of her arms. “My arm has been fixed.”

“Yeah I saw,” he said as he hugged his girlfriend back.

“That’s wonderful, isn’t it Lore?” said Ashara, hoping to get him to be nice for once.

But Lore wasn’t watching his niece. No, his eyes were locked on the woman who had accompanied her into the Infirmary. She was a shorter woman with silvery hair done up neatly in a bun. Ashara guessed that she was only a few years older than herself. What she couldn’t understand was why both she and Lore seemed to know one another.

“Hello, Lore,” said the doctor with a hint of an accent. “I never fancied I would see you again, let alone in the company of such a lovely girl who claims to be your niece.”

The android didn’t respond. It would have been easy to assume that he was being defiant and refusing to speak to this person, but the emotion he was feeling wasn’t malicious. Ashara didn’t have to be an empath to sense the heart wrenching pain and longing radiating off of him. It was as though this woman could have destroyed him with single a word.

Lal quickly realized the change in her uncle and moved to comfort him. Once beside him, she slowly reached up to guide his gaze towards her.

“Uncle, it is alright, I am here with you,” she told him. Lore seemed to break free from whatever hold the silver haired woman had on him. He smiled weakly at Lal before removing her hand from his face. Then he stalked out of the room without another word. The doctor frowned and followed after him.

“What was that about?” asked Ashara still startled by how human Lore had seemed.

“Yeah, who was that?” added Wesley finding the whole thing baffling.

“It appears that Ashara is not the only woman to rise from the dead,” Lal informed her. “That is Juliana Tainer, formerly Soong; or more precisely, Lore’s mother.”

“His what!?” they both said in stereo.

Ashara didn’t wait for the girl to answer. She stood and chased after them, fearing if she didn’t Lore would do something terrible.

.....

“Lore stop! Please speak to me!” Juliana called after him.

The android did stop and abruptly turned to face her. He thought this was what he wanted. He thought seeing her again, face to face, would somehow make all the difference. He was wrong. It only made him remember the pain she caused him and reopened the raw psychological scars that her betrayal had inflicted.

“What do you want me to say?” His question was unnervingly quiet.

“I thought Mr. Glyph was meant to tell you I was here,” she told him with a rueful shake of her head. “I never meant to upset you.”

“No?” Lore snarked coldly as he denied the obnoxious tears threatening to fall from his eyes. He refused to cry; more than that he refused to allow her to see him cry. “Did you expect I would be happy? Thought I would throw a parade and give you a thousand hugs?”

“Lore, don’t be like that,” she chided without thinking, like some sort of parental reflex.

“Like what? Like I am!?” he shouted dramatically. “Oh no, look out, it’s overly emotional Lore. You never know what he might do, or how he might overreact!”

“Lore...” Juliana was cut off by Ashara. She touched the woman’s arm and gave her a disparaging look.

“Just leave him be,” she insisted.

The android took off in a huff back towards their cabin. When Ashara entered behind him, she could tell he had been wiping at his eyes. Her first instinct was to leave him alone, like she had instructed the other woman; but she couldn’t help the sudden fascination that drew her closer.

“Get out!” Lore snapped without looking at her.

“I take it that woman had a significant roll in the decision to disassemble you,” she said frankly, refusing to give in to his tyranny.

He jumped on her then; his hand clamped on her throat, his body crushing her against the wall. She stared defiantly into his eyes as he began applying pressure to her windpipe. She didn’t even try to fight him, knowing that there was no use in it.

She could feel his whole body tremble as he fought against the instinct to murder her right there and then. She was hoping that it was his mother he wanted dead and not her, and maybe, just maybe he would regain his senses if she gave him half a chance.

Lore finally pulled himself off of her. He proceeded to rip a sconce off of the wall near her head and smash it against the opposite wall. He was seething with rage and breathing hard even though she suspected he didn’t need to breath so deeply, if at all.

“Why aren’t you afraid of me?” he demanded with obvious frustration.

“Maybe because I’ve known too many horrible men in my life, men that could have killed me at least a hundred times already,” she commented thoughtfully. “Maybe in a way I wish they had. I think you’ll agree that it’s the things that people did to you that you wish you hadn’t survived that are far worse than death. Dying would be a gift.”

He turned and stared at her with that same heartbreaking look in his eyes. He didn’t have to ask who had hurt her, it was irrelevant. He knew she had suffered and as an organic being she had suffered beyond anything he could ever be subjected to.

Lore approached her again and pressed her back to the wall as he had before, only this time there was a tenderness to his touch when he held his hand around her throat.

“Do it, if it will help you,” she whispered sympathetically. “I forgive you.”

A single tear rolled down his face as he removed himself her. He couldn’t take her life. He had quickly become accustomed to her company and if his two captives were to leave him then he selfishly wanted to keep her alive and with him a little longer. He just wasn’t ready to admit it. 

Ashara caught his arm to keep him from retreating too far, but he refused to meet her gaze. 

“I don’t want to let them go,” he confessed. It was probably the most honest he had been with himself since this whole mess began. “It’s insane, they’ll never trust me, let alone forgive me. But I want to keep them.”

“They don’t belong to you. They belong to their families and to each other,” she reminded him. 

When he tried to move away again she fiercely pulled him back to her and claimed his mouth with her own. Lore was dumbfounded by her actions and kept his hands up and away from her body. She had to grasp his wrists and guide him back to her; to her breasts, ass, and hips. He willingly allowed her to take the lead. Although devoid of any formal sexuality programming, he could still very much appreciate the emotional and physical comfort of their closeness.

“Promise you’ll stay with me, Ashara,” Lore all but begged between kisses.

The woman smiled upon hearing him use her full name for once. He must have really meant it.

“I suppose I could get used to you,” she offered slyly as she pulled back from him to lean her head against the wall. “You and I aren’t so different.”

“Well, you might change your mind when I tell you that my dick doesn’t work,” he said with a frown.

“I’ve had enough intercourse to last me a lifetime,” she stated quite seriously. “Besides, you have a devilish tongue and lovely long fingers that I imagine are quite capable.”

Lore had never known himself to blush, but if he could he was sure that he was after hearing her lurid suggestions. “My, my, what a mouth you have,” he snarked.

“I’m sure we’ll find some way of using it to please you,” she teased in response.

......


	14. Epilogue, Home Again

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Just as the title says.

It turned out that Mudd was an honourable man after all. The Enterprise met up with the Rosanna by the end of the second day. Lore decided to keep his word as well. He would stay and work for the merchant if he and Ashara were kept out of any conversations with Picard. As for Lore and his mother; he decided to keep a safe distance and not speak to again anytime soon.

Doctor Crusher hugged her son for a solid ten minutes. Under normal circumstances Wesley would have pushed her away and told her it was too much, but today it would never be too much. He had missed his mother more than he realized.

Wesley arrived back on the Enterprise with little evidence of the hardships he had suffered, which was probably for the best because Lore had guessed right about the look on his mother’s face. The boy could only guess how irate his mother would have been if he had shown up with not only a fever, but multiple contusions, abrasions and puncture wounds from the injection sites created by the damned slave collar he was forced to wear not once, but twice.

Data had a surprisingly similar reaction. The android held onto Lal for almost just as long. Then Geordi had a turn. The engineer never thought he would see her again and in one piece. It was decided to keep what had happened to her arm a secret, especially since it would be impossible to explain who had repaired it. Lore insisted that Data shouldn’t know about Julian just yet.

Cornelius Mudd came aboard the Enterprise with the two young people to deliver them himself. He never could resist a tour of a Starfleet Flagship.

“Thank you again, Mr. Mudd. We appreciate your assistance in returning our children to us,” began Captain Picard as they concluded in Ten Forward.

“No need to thank me,” gloated Mudd. “Although I suppose you already have,” he added with a wink to the captain.

Commander Riker smiled mischievously at the remark. He wasn’t entirely privy to the exchange between the wealthy merchant and his captain, but he was sure looking forward to finding out the details later.

“Yes, well, we are grateful for your intervention,” said Picard after clearing his throat. “It is unfortunate that the criminal responsible is no longer in your custody.”

“No, I’m ashamed to say that even my guards couldn’t keep Lore under lock and key,” said Mudd convincingly. “He is quite a clever machine, no offence.”

Data blinked at the well-groomed man before replying, deciding he was inferring that he may have offended his sensibilities as he too was an android. “None taken, I assure you.”

“Good, good,” the man added with a jovial clap of his hands. “I best get back to my ship. ‘While the cat’s away’ as they say.”

Riker smiled even broader, if that were possible. He was taking a real shine to this Mudd character. “If you’ll follow me, sir, I will walk you back to our transporter room,” he said as he gestured for the man to follow him out.

“Do you believe him, Counsellor Troi?” Picard asked discretely.

“About Lore, sir?” He gave her curt a nod. “I’m not certain. It feels as though there is some truth to what he is saying, however, he is most definitely holding something back,” Troi explained. Then she looked over at Data and frowned before adding, “Even Lal and Wesley seem to be bending the truth for some reason.”

“I suppose trauma of this nature does alter one’s perception as well as causing a reluctance to see everything exactly as it happened,” her captain said wisely.

“That is true, however, I can almost sense a feeling of affection from both of them in regards to Lore,” she said with some hesitation. “I must admit that I find it unsettling.”

“Unsettling indeed, Counsellor,” he said in agreement.

.....

Wesley’s hands trembled slightly as he scrolled through his planner. They were only away for just over a week, but it felt like a lifetime. Something about his struggle made him hesitate when he saw that his departure date to take his entrance exams. It was coming up in just a few days and he suddenly doubted if he was actually Starfleet material. 

Lal was sitting close-by on his bed. She was always close-by in the days that followed their return home. She seemed to need to know where he was and that he was staying safe and well. 

Troi tried to explain PTSD to the android, but Lal was certain she was beyond capable of coping. She only wanted to be sure that Wesley was coping. So she followed her boyfriend around for his wellbeing, not necessarily for her own. 

“What is wrong?” she asked as she noted the change in his temperament.

“Just that my exams are soon. I’m due to leave next week,” he told her calmly. Inside he was a wreck. He felt so weak and small to be feeling so afraid of a routine transport.

“I can go with you. Perhaps you will feel better with my moral support,” she offered sweetly.

It was true that he credited her presence for keeping him alive while they were Lore’s captives, but he couldn’t continue to ask her to be with him forever. If he was accepted into the academy he couldn’t take her with him. She was a person not a security blanket. Besides, she needed to remain with her father and continue her development.

“It’s fine...maybe I’ll put it off for now. I can take the tests in a few months when they’re offered again.”

Lal came to stand behind him at his desk. She put her arms around him and kissed the top of his head. “You are nearly eighteen. You want this. I believe in you, Wesley. Do not put it off.”

“Won’t you miss me?” he asked sadly.

“More than words,” she replied without missing a beat. “But you can do this. You survived my horrible uncle and several terrible illnesses all in short amount of time. You are very capable of taking a few tests.”

They both knew that it wasn’t the academics that scared him, but pretended it was. 

“If I get in...we’ll talk all the time. I promise,” he said as he turned in his chair and pulled her to sit in his lap. “And it’s not like I’ll start right away. I have to wait until the next session starts.”

“And you will visit frequently, when you are able,” she added lovingly.

“What if I’m not as strong without you?”

“Wesley, you will never be without me. I will be right here,” Lal told him firmly as she lay her palm on his heart.

Then they held each other tight and Lal shared one of her breathing exercises with him, the one that so often helped her in a crisis to regain her composure. Although her boyfriend laughed nervously and said he would never need it, he was grateful none the less.

It would come in handy when they encountered the Borg a few months later. And again when Wesley bravely entered the academy. But they moved forward, together, because life in space was always going to be a gamble, they would just have to accept it.

......

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope this doesn’t feel too rushed. Just wanted to wrap things up. My next instalment is a bit fluffier and I have at least one more after that already started. So many stories for our Lal. I might go back sometime and write about Lore and Ashara sometime, not sure yet.  
> Thank you for reading. These stories are really just for my fun, but it makes me so happy if someone else enjoys them too.—Cheers!


End file.
